Home Made Granola Bars -All Natural!
The true test of a successful recipe in our house is when the kids eat it, ask for more, and there are no leftovers. It is our goal to make sure that those recipes are made from natural ingredients, contain no preservatives and are easily accessible. We have an easy time making healthy dinners, but after school snacks can sometimes be a challenge. Of course we fill our house with fresh fruits and vegetables but let’s be realistic, sometimes you need that snack when you are ‘on the go’. What better way to get that little boost of energy than from a granola bar. But don’t grab one of those boxes off the shelf at your favorite grocery store — have you ever looked at what those are made of???? Corn Syrup solids, High Fructose Corn Syrup, and BHT — where in the world do you buy that??
We have spent weeks trying to make the perfect ‘natural’ granola bar — and FINALLY have done it!!! In fact, when I get a text that I should be selling these, I consider that a success! And when I got home…yes, they were all gone! So no more, 100 calorie granola bars from a box — it is time this family makes their own Homemade Granola Bars for good!
Homemade Granola Bars
Ingredients:
Mixing the dry ingredients
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup puffed or crispy rice cereal
1/2 cup chopped or slivered nuts (I used almond slivers)
3/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup honey (or brown rice syrup to make it vegan friendly)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons peanut butter (or any nut butter freshly ground)
Instructions
Line an 8×8 dish with parchment paper and press mixture down until firm
1. Heat the oven to 325°F. Line the baking pan with parchment, leaving extra parchment to hang over 2 of the sides. Lightly coat with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Mix the oats, cereal, nuts, and raisins together in a mixing bowl.
3. In a small bowl, mix the honey, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, and peanut butter.
Cut Granola Bars with a very sharp knife into 8 pieces
4. Pour the honey mixture over the dry ingredients. Stir until the ingredients are completely coated and start to stick together in clumps.
5. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Use an extra piece of parchment paper to firmly press the mixture into the pan.
Granola Bars wrapped in plastic baggies and ready to be eaten on the go — but why – they didn’t even make it out of the house!
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes for chewy granola bars or 25-30 minutes for crunchy bars. As soon as you remove the bars from the oven, press them again with the back of a lightly oiled spatula for well compacted granola bars.
Of course you can customize this recipe to make to your own specifications — add cranraisins, or almond butter. Whatever you choose to do, experiment and I am sure you and your family will love the results!!
Enjoy!
Mary and Jim
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these granola bars are fantastic, great for the kid snacks.
yum .. look so good.
Oh,, and by the way.. corn syrup is made from CORN ,LOL .
so is High Fruc corn syrup .. How do I know ? my hubby works for a Family owned world wide company that makes it. Corn is picked from fields in Iowa & NE . brought to the plant & many , many things are made from that single tiny corn kernel.. it’s actually pretty amazing. corn syrup & High Fruc corn syrup are as natural & pure as cane sugar or honey . So the next time you see it, don’t be scared , it’s made by some great men & women that provide a living for their families, From just about every state in the union & almost every country in the world. run by a safety first , people orientated Family held company that provides more then just sugar around the world EVery day.
but no.. you can’t buy it off the shelf. LOL
lisa
Sounds nice, Lisa…I wish it was that simple, but most corn products are genetically modified, unless they are organic. I’ve been steering away from anything made from corn. This link might be a good one to learn more about this…
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/01/09/gm-corn-poses-health-hazard.aspx
These granola bars look wonderful…I’m sending the link to my daughter.
those sound delicious! and i love that there’s peanut butter in ‘em!
Those look dee-lish! Thanks for sharing the recipe! Love that you can customize it! I might need to add some allergy-free chocolate chips! ;0)
These look good! I’m sure they’d be alot cheaper to make homemade (and definitely healthier). Gonna pin these.
We make our own granola bars too but yours truly do look amazing! I know they are a lot healthier than what they sell in the stores!
Visiting from LHITS DIY Linky – Thanks for the recipe! This is exactly what I’ve been looking for!
Drooling. These look fantastic!
Thanks for the recipe. I need to make some of these!
Hugs,
Marcie
Thank you for this great recipe. Easy enough even I could make them. My intent was to share them with the Grandkids when they were to come over but the wife and I ate them all before the day arrived. We’ll have to make another batch together with the kids.
Just made these and omgoodness yummy. Could you use agave in place of the honey?
I’m sure you could kari.BTW thanks for sharing this on your wall.I have tried something like this before but they came out HARD & Bland.This recipe looks YUMMY.Think I might make some This weekend.
I should have mentioned that we did replace the honey with agave nectar.
and we used cocoa rice cereal.
Kids are really hard to feed sometimes but maybe not with this granola bars. Good post.
Anyway to print your recipe? Id love to add it to my collection, but I cant find a print option and I’d rather not print an entire page of black with white letters. And when I copy and paste its a total mess in a word document. Sorry
Thanks tho!