Boxes of Granola Bars from the store... they are the perfect snack! They are healthy, portable, loaded with energy rich ingredients and inexpensive. WRONG! Alright, I'll give the ones from the store the benefit of being portable, but on the other counts, I beg to disagree. The granola bars that you buy by the box are loaded with sugar and they are anything but cheap. This led me to a search for the perfect granola bar recipe. I wanted to be able to truly control my ingredients and the price. I tried a few different recipes that I found posted around the internet, but they weren't quite doing it for me, so I modified, adapted and created a recipe that in the end doesn't really resemble any of the others.
My kids love them. They have one packed in their lunch every day, and it is the one item that I never find uneaten at the end of the day. They are also loaded with nutrient rich ingredients... oh, the fiber in these babies!
Homemade Granola Bar Recipe
2 cups non-instant oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbs vegetable oil
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup honey
1 egg (or 2 tbs powdered eggs + 4 tbs water)
1 tsp vanilla
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare 9x13 pan with cooking spray. In large mixing bowl combine all dry ingredients. Mix wet ingredients in small mixing bowl and add to dry. Mix well. Spread evenly in prepared pan. Bake for 15 minutes. Cut into individual bars. Makes 18 bars.
I make this recipe and put each bar into a sandwich bag. I then put them all in a larger bag and keep them in my freezer. Each morning when I am preparing lunches I place them in the lunchboxes, frozen. They are defrosted and ready to eat by snack-time.
My kids think these are cookies.
