Buying Green: Nature's Hand Granola

I recently had a chance to try Nature's Hand Granola, all-natural granola (and actually the official granola of Outward Bound, and also donates 10,000+ pounds of granola annually to women's shelters). I got to try two flavors - cinnamon apple and French vanilla almond. It can also be purchased in wild blueberry, original vanilla almond, cranberry delight, raisin hazelnut, maple pecan, and coconut almond (bulk only).

I loved the flavor, especially the cinnamon apple, which came with good-sized chunks of dried apple slices. It has no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives, and is made by a company that just makes granola - which is pretty special, because there aren't too many one-product companies anymore. It has a very crunchy texture - some granola softens almost instantly in milk, but this took a while to soften. I actually liked that, since it took longer to chew and felt like a much heartier breakfast. I'll definitely be keeping my eye out for it and buying it again. The website has a lot of great recipes using granola - parfaits, desserts, and more - so even if you don't like eating granola as a breakfast food, you can find lots of ways to incorporate it. Granola is healthy, and dense, so it's very filling.

Nature's Hand Granola can be purchased at Whole Foods, Cub, Econofoods, and Jewel stores, as well as other places across the US. It can also be purchased at the website. For more information, visit Nature's Hand Granola on Facebook or @NaturalGranola.

Disclosure: I received samples of Nature's Hand Granola to facilitate this post.