Homemade Granola Bars

In the recent weeks as food prices have gone out of control, I have had to make a lot of cuts to our weekly grocery list. Granola bars can be a bit pricey, it was costing around $7.50 a week, or even more when I packed cliff bars for the husband (which I often do because they are so filling). So along with my morning orange juice, granola bars got the ax. Well, it dawned on me that most of the ingredients in granola bars are pantry staples in my house. So I did a quick recipe search on allrecipes.com (love that site!) I scanned through a few and I always like to read the reviews too. Very helpful. Anyway I tested out a recipe, and used some modifications that some reviewers gave. The first batch was pretty tasty, but I made more modifications this time around and I think they are perfect! My husband even told me "Good work on the granola bars!" Which made me proud!

Now the great thing about making your own granola bars is that you can modify the recipe to meet your indiviual needs/tastes. This is perfect if your children or you have a nut allergy. Most granola bars, even if they are nut free, are processed near nuts so they may be off limits. Have no fear! This way you know exactly what is going into the bars. Also its so fun to personalize the bars. Get creative! You can add dried fruit, nuts, chocolate chips, coconut, whatever you want. The grocery store near my house sells trail mix in bulk, so I added some of that into the mix. Last week I tried chocolate chip/peanut butter chip with nuts, this week I opted for the white chocolate cherry pecan trail mix. Yum yum yum! Why not try a tropical twist? Add coconut, dried papya and pineapple maybe even some macadamia nuts if you want to break the bank.

Or you could just go simple and add raisins. ( I don't plan on doing this because I HATE raisins. )

You could add mini m&m's for a treat for the kids too! Anyway, I don't plan on going back to store bought granola any time soon. These were so fun, easy and delicious I'm hooked!

Here is my modified recipe. The original recipe can be found here at allrecipes.com

Granola Bars

Ingredients:

2 cups old fashioned oats

1/2 cup brown sugar (orginal recipe called for 3/4 cup. That is too much sugar in my opinion)
1/4 cup wheat germ -(original recipe called for 1/2 cup and no flax seed. I decided to split them up, to add more variety and because I am running low on wheat germ!)
1/4 cup flax seed
3/4 t ground cinnamon
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 t salt
3/4 cup mix ins of your choice
1/3 cup honey (original recipe called for 1/2 cup. Honey is expensive and I wanted to cut down the sugar)
1 egg beaten
1/2 cup veg oil ( you could substitute part or all of this with applesauce, which I did the first time I made these. It is healthier no doubt, but yields a more soft, chewy granola bar. Some people prefer this. But i like mine to have a little crunch, so I will stick to the oil)
2 t. vanilla extract ( This time I added 1 t. almond, 1 t. vanilla)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Generously grease a 9x13 baking pan. In large bowl mix together dry ingredients. Make a well in the center and add honey, oil, egg and vanilla. Mix together with large wooden spoon or with your hands. Press into the baking dish until smooth and even.

Cook for about 25-30 minutes, or until the edges begin to brown. If you want a crunchier bar cook longer, if you want a softer bar, take out around 20 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes and then cut into bars. I got 18 bars, the original recipe said it yielded 24. These would be too small, I think.

The End.