RECIPE | Granola Bars on the go!

I’ve been on a health-craze lately and I'm trying very hard to make a lot of what I eat to avoid processed food. I won’t say how well it’s going because it’s extremely hard to turn down a crunchy bag of chips or a bite out of a sweet chocolate bar.  I decided to start small and make my own granola bars!

The best thing about making your own food is that you know EXACTLY what goes into it. Granola bars are a great way to start because they make easy breakfasts or snacks or you can basically alter it to your own individual taste and change up the recipe every time!

Ingredients:

2 cups rolled oats

1/3 cup peanut butter

½ cup bran cereal , ½ sunflower seeds ,¼ cup butterscotch chips ,¼ cup flax seeds, ¼ cup raisins, ¼ cup cranberries (total 2 cups interchangeable ingredients)

¼ cup honey

6 tablespoons apple sauce

½ teaspoon salt (make sure it’s finely grounded salt and not big chunks)

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon water

Method:

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2) Toast the oats for 5-10 minutes in the oven
(you can also toast any nuts you might be adding to your bars).

So many goodies going into the bars!

3) Using a food processor or blender, blend 1/3 cup oats into fine powder and add it to the rest of the oats.

4) Put all of your dry ingredients together.

5) Whisk all the wet ingredients together.

6) Mix wet and dry ingredients together in a bowl.

7) Butter a baking dish so your granola bars will come out easier in the end.

8) Press the granola into the dish. Make sure you are pressing very hard so all the ingredients will stick together.

9) Bake for 20-30 minutes depending on the thickness of your bars. They are ready when they start to brown on the top. Mine were a little chewier than I liked so I cut it into bars and baked it again upside down for another 5 minutes.

I’m going to try adding some almond slivers and toasted coconut next time, the possibilities are endless! I didn’t add any sugar to my mix because the raisins, cranberries and butterscotch chips would have enough sweetness to it but if you are adding mainly nuts, you might want to add ¼ cup of brown sugar! These bars make perfect snacks or a quick breakfast!