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There’s a dirty little secret about granola, which we’re cleaning up. Granola is like the Miley Cyrus of breakfast foods – you think she’s just wholesome bites of Hannah Montana and stuff like that, and then you find out there’s some twerk and weed in that food.

Granola’s nutritional value starts with decent ingredients that are high in fiber and protein, but it takes a turn, as does yogurt, with high levels of nutrition-void sugars and ultimately the calorie count is through the roof.

We had been eating up this version for everything: breakfasts, late night snacking, gifts for friends and even taking sad little ziploc bagfuls to the theatre as a popcorn replacement. This so-called clean granola was so good that my husband with his falconer mitt hands was willing to pick at a rolled oat and a chopped pecan as an adequate movie fare. We were addicted until I added up the ingredients in the trusty Lose-it app and about lost it when I saw the calorie count – 800+/cup. Come on Gwyn, we know you’re not downing buckets of these oatmeal clusters. Then, I searched other recipes online and found even those billed as low-calorie were anything but.

Determined to lower the count, but retain scrumptious flavor and nutrition, we reduced obvious offenders, sugar and oil by 2/3 and halved the amount of chopped nuts. The surprise came from learning calorie count of rolled oats versus puffed millet, so we swapped out portions. Puffed millet does not have quite the fiber impact as rolled oats, so you’ll have to make that choice.

Our version, on the right above, brought the calorie count down to a rare 450/cup with plenty of sweetness and that’s, pretty cool