Homemade granola is a delicious, low waste alternative helping you avoid all of the extra plastic bags / liners and cardboard boxes that comes with conventional cereals. You don’t need that stuff! Even though those Peanut Butter Panda Puffs are looking right at me… Bulk granola probably lives in most bulk sections but I like to control the amount of sweetener I’m eating and experimenting with other nuts / seeds / dried fruits makes me feel like a real kitchen wiz.
More and more larger retailers are providing dry goods as a shopping option but seem to be slow on other “wet” staples like the maple syrup and coconut oil this recipe calls for. Between the Fred Meyers, New Seasons, Whole Foods, and People’s Co-op here in Portland no one carried either of these in bulk. I spent a good amount of time figuring out how I would possibly make my own coconut oil (future blog post??) and source maple syrup without using any plastic. Apparently though you can get a 5 gallon drum on Amazon and just swim in the stuff, no judgement. I did discover the possibility of maple-tapping in Oregon and I’m very excited to try collecting syrup myself in the near future! More to come on that.
This bulk bin granola uses all dry goods from the bulk and spice section, collected in my trusty reusable dry goods bags. The maple syrup is in a reusable or recyclable glass container with a small plastic ring and top. The coconut oil comes in a glass jar I will clean out and repurpose (I flip my lid for glass jars!) but unfortunately every single container I found of coconut oil had a plastic seal around the top. A small amount of waste for products I will get several uses out of compared to larger, harder or impossible to recycle packaged granola.
Do you have a favorite granola add-in?
Let me know if you tried this! #closedloopcooking
Stay hungry,
Hawnuh Lee
Closed Loop Cooking
