Healthy Snack Ideas

Impromptu Granola Bars

I have to confess that I, the author and host of a healthy snack blog, have been buying store bought granola bars. I love to cook and bake, but it's been crazy busy lately, so I haven't made granola bars in months. This morning, while standing in the produce aisle at Safeway trying to choose which Odwalla bar to buy for breakfast, I decided that I would instead go home and make granola bars form scratch.

A warning is in order here because I learned to cook from watching both of my grandmothers, who were not big fans of measuring things, so these amounts are estimates. I went into the kitchen and just whipped these up. You can feel free to add, delete or substitute ingredients according to your taste. You need to have enough liquid to make the grains hold together in a bar, but not enough to make it into batter.

Next time I'll add sunflower seeds and sesame seeds and maybe swap the chocolate chips for raisins to mix it up a little. Add what you like and what your kids like to eat.

So, here is my recipe for Impromptu Granola Bars:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Oil a 13" x 9" baking pan with sides (not a cookie sheet)

4 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup ground flax meal
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup chopped, raw Almonds
1/4 Tsp salt
1/2 Tsp baking powder
1 Tsp Cinnamon

1 beaten egg
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup Agave nectar
1/4 cup Brown Rice Syrup
1/2 Tsp Vanilla extract

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. In another bowl mix the liquid ingredients together with a whisk. Add the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients. Stir until all of the dry ingredients are moistened. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Pour the mixture into the pan. Using a rubber spatula press it down and into the corners of the pan. Lower the oven temperature to 325. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the edges are slightly golden. Allow it to cool slightly and then cut into bars. If you let them cool too long you might have a difficult time cutting them.

Keep the granola bars sealed in a plastic container and use them in a few days. I typically freeze half the batch.