Grain Free Granola - sugar free

Ever since we got a dehydrator I have been thrilled with making my own granola. When we first started going grain free spending 9$ for a bag for only 1 weeks worth was tragic.

Originally I have always been an oatmeal eater, still to this day because it's so delicious; organic gluten free oats; I don't know how you can go wrong.
Sadly, I have been trying to slowly reduce my oats to weekly or biweekly, just because there are good reasons to do that and I like experimenting. 

So I was thinking, a grain free granola? Hm, sounds good. Only I don't just want a mouth full of nuts.  I like almonds, but almonds on top of almonds is a little too much for me.
You know my new favorite ingredient is Whey Powder.  It's delicious, and has many different beneficial properties, besides being low in carb. 

So I thought, how great would it be to use Whey powder as a base for the granola instead of rolled oats.
 Here is what I cam up with:

 

 Grain Free Granola - sugar free 

Make this into, cinnamon raisin, strawberry vanilla, cranberry crunch, etc.

In a large mixing bowl:

4 C sliced blanched almonds*
2 C shredded coconut unsweet
1 C vanilla Whey powder unsweet
1 C organic raisins
1/2 C flax meal or 1/4 C chia

Stir together, In a seperate bowl mix:

1 C unsweetened apple sauce
2 T palm sugar, or equal to in splenda, stevia
1 T vanilla powder or real extract
2 T ground cinnamon
1 t sea salt

Combine the two bowls. Mixture should clump together but not be wet. Spread out on to several racks in dehydrator. Dehydrate at 200 degrees. Every 2 hours stir and crumble granola with your hands until mix starts to clump and dry together. Dehydrate 8 hours or so until crunchy.

Can be made in the oven baked at 200 degrees until crispy. Stir every 2 hours just the same.