Granola Bars - Columbia Station,OH

Good for you, those packaged bars are terrible nutritionally. Might as well eat a candy bar IMO.

Below is a link to a granola bar recipe we like. I change things up a lot as my kids don't like some of the ingredients. I've added chocolate chips before and they turned out great. You can reduce the sugars a bit too and not change the consistency.

Another thing we make at home to substitute for granola bars is muffins. Zucchini muffins with applesauce subbed for 1/2 the oil, less sugar and added flax seed or wheat germ are healthy and really good. Knowing what is actually in our food is a goal of mine and making things at home is about the only way to do that anymore.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/homemade-gr...

Not granola bars per se, but a close approximation I make sometimes is oatmeal cookies, but in a baking tray as bars rather than as cookies.

I sub 1/2 the flour for whole wheat flour, add some powdered fiber, flax seed, chia seed, wheat germ, sesame seed, walnuts, choc chips, bananas, dried cranberries/ blue berries, pineapple chunks, coconut, and whatever else seems yummy/ appropriate.

bake till done and they go down a real treat.

Best to you and yours,
F. B.

I don't have an actual recipe, but I make bars with no butter at all. Just honey, brown rice syrup, peanut or almond butter, oats, dried fruit and/or choc chips, flax seeds, nuts.

However much honey I would use, I replace about half with the brown rice syrup. Much healthier. That's my big tip. You'd never know the difference. I will say I tried putting it in tea once and yuck, but in bars along with honey- no difference.

You could use regular granola and just add chocolate chips.
My recipe uses sweetened condensed milk. It bakes up loosely, but you could easily press it into bars.

I will warn you...you will have a hard time NOT eating the whole pan of it right out of the oven. It's delicious!

1 3/4 cup old fashioned oats
1/4 cup wheat germ
1 tsp salt
7 ounces sweetened condensed milk
1/8 cup oil
1/2 raisins (optional)
1/2 cup shredded coconut

Combine dry ingredients, then add milk and oil. Mix well.
Bake for 1 hr at 300, stirring every 15 min or so to prevent sticking.

YUM!

I've made something i found on pinterest that is a non cook item (not sure if i would call it a granola bar, but I thought I would suggest it). I roll them in balls and have them on hand. They are a real treat. We call them peanut butter balls.

http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/no-bake-energy-bites/

Peanut butter
oat meal
a little honey to stick together
vinilla extract
-chia seeds
-any other seed you want
-chocolate chips or rasins (or any item you like)

I have never tried it for granola bars, but I often replace the butter in cookies and banana bread with apple sauce. If you do so you just need to be sure to store the item in the fridge and it will go bad more quickly.

I have made oatmeal bars (seems similar) but with all the butter and what not the recipe called for, they were fantastic and are really good for breakfast with vanilla yogurt.