Active Life Cooking

My Quest for a Quick and Fool-Proof Granola Bar Has Ended…

You can tell by now from my recipes, that I like to make quick and easy snacks for when life takes you on the run (or not, I love eating these at my desk at work also: see protein bars and granola bars). I’ve also had problems with adapting granola bar recipes to be easy to make in a city like Houston with a humid climate. This recipe I found is the most highly adaptable and forgiving granola bar recipe out there! I just need to share my love of this recipe with the internet world at large!Two of my most favorite foods growing up were peanut butter and honey. My Mom says that there was about 2 years when I was growing up that I pretty much refused to eat anything but peanut butter and honey sandwiches…it’s funny how things come around full circle. Once again, I’ve gone back to my peanut butter and honey roots whenever I’m craving a sweet snack (sometimes chocolate too, but peanut butter and honey most often). This granola bar represents a perfect blend of the tastes of peanut butter and honey in a lovely granola bar!

The kicker is how easy it is to prepare, I can now whip up a batch in under 20 minutes easily!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Old Fashioned Oats
• 2 tbsp of your favorite “chaser”: such as millet (shown), flax seed, flax seed meal, wheat germ, etc. (optional)
• 1/4 cup of Soy Protein powder (optional, but gives nutritional boost)
• 1/2 cup Smooth Peanut Butter (I use natural/organic)
• 1/2 cup Honey
• 1 tbsp Brown Sugar (optional, I don’t need it, but my husband prefers it)
• 1/2 cup of your favorite “additives”: sunflower seeds, raisins, cranberries, dried blueberries, figs, almonds, pecans, whatever your heart contents
• 1 tsp salt (optional, don’t use if you are using salted butter or salted nuts already)

Okay…read carefully…you’ll be impressed on how simple these instructions are and how quickly you’ll get done making your yummy peanut butter and honey granola bars…

Preheat your oven to 400F.

Prepare a small saucepan with the honey, peanut butter, and brown sugar (if using)

Take this time to get out a 9×9 baking dish and line with parchment paper. Also set out a cooling rack.

Spread the oats (and chaser if needing toasting, such as millet or almonds) onto a deep dish baking pan. Place pan into oven.

Turn the saucepan onto low to med-low heat. You want the mixture to get warm and combine smoothly, but be careful not to burn or simmer. You know your stovetop best to know what setting will work to accomplish this.

While the oats are toasting, prepare the additives into a medium sized mixing bowl and coat with protein powder (if using).

Be sure to watch the oats carefully, they don’t taste good when they get burnt. Take out of oven when they are a golden brown. This takes about 5-10 minutes for me, usually around 7 minutes.

When oats are done, carefully add to the medium bowl with the additives. On top of this, add the peanut honey mixture. Mix well with a wooden spoon. This will take a bit of muscle work, but it is possible to combine it all together.

Plop the mixture into the baking dish lined with parchment paper and spread evenly into baking dish. The bars are ~1/4″ in depth when spread correctly.

Carefully lift out parchment paper from baking dish and let cool on baking rack. After about 30 minutes (or cool to touch, I like to flip the block over to cool more evenly.

After they have cooled down some more, score the granola bars so you get as even a cut as you can and cut on a hard flat surface. Makes 18 granola bars.

Nutrition (1 bar, no brown sugar, millet, cranberries, and raisins as chasers):

• 137 cal
• 4 g fat
• 22 g carb
• 2 g fiber
• 5 g protein
• super delicious!

Hope you enjoy making your super-easy, highly adaptable, homemade granola bars! They are great for kids young and old!