Homemade Granola Bars

Have you looked at the ingredient list of those so-called “healthy” granola bars you buy at the store? If you have, then you’ve noticed that one of the main ingredients in these little babies is high fructose corn syrup. Occasionally, there’s also some modified corn starch and partially hydrogenated soybean oil in there. While these ingredients sound OK (corn syrup, corn starch, soy… those sound OK), they are anything but.

As of late, I’ve decided to make some of our snacks myself. This way, I know exactly what’s going into them. And they really don’t take that much time to make, which is a bonus. I make a batch of the following recipe for granola bars on the weekend, and they last throughout the whole week.

Originally found at: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Playgroup-Granola-Bars/Detail.aspx. I changed the recipe a bit and love the outcome.

Homemade Granola Bars (makes 18-20 bars)

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups rolled oats
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup wheat germ
• 1/4 cup flax seed
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 crunchy peanut butter
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Generously grease a 9×13 inch baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the oats, brown sugar, wheat germ, flax seed, cinnamon, flour, chocolate chips, and salt. Make a well in the center, and pour in the honey, egg, oil, peanut butter, and vanilla. Mix well using your hands. Pat the mixture evenly into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 25-30 minutes in the preheated oven, until the bars begin to turn golden at the edges. Cool for 5 minutes, then cut into bars while still warm. Do not allow the bars to cool completely before cutting, or they will be too hard to cut.
4. Wrap individually in plastic wrap and store in tupperware container.

Like I said, I tweaked the recipe a bit, adding crunchy PB, lowering the amount of oil, using chocolate chips instead of raisins, and adding flax seed. You can pretty much do whatever you want with the basic recipe (see the comments on the link for variations… I tried the mashed banana last week, but it tasted funny. Next week, I’m going to try apple sauce to make them more chewy). The recipe above is the one I like best so far.

So try it out! They’re a big hit with my husband and my 2 year old. And I dig ’em too.