Yummy Homemade Granola Bars #recipe

I keep looking for new, relatively easy recipes to try out while I’m on mat leave.  I actually thought I would have more time to try new recipes – after all, cooking is one of my passions in life, but I really don’t have that much time.  Funny to say – I always thought I would have all the time in the world before going off work to have my baby, and I had all these grand plans.

When I do find the time, I’m too tired and choose to do other things, like sit on the couch and eat…  Most of my ‘me’ time is after my baby goes to bed at night, and seriously, it takes almost everything in me to stay awake past 9pm.  So, my ambitious goals of learning all these new recipes and meals, organizing just about every room in my house, creating her baby book, etc, etc… is just taking a little more time than I had expected.  This new granola bar recipe, thanks to Better Homes and Gardens (and Facebook, which is where I saw it “shared” by a friend of a friend of a friend…) is a great recipe to have in your back pocket.  It’s a great snack and an easy recipe.

So, I have to say first off that I messed up on the recipe, but it actually still turned out really well.  You’ll see what I did.  Here’s the recipe:

{Chocolate-Peanut Butter Granola Bar}

• Nonstick cooking spray
• 1 cup regular rolled oats (I used quick oats, cause that’s all I had – it still worked well)
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 3 tbsp packed brown sugar
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups crisp rice cereal
• 3/4 cup coarsely broken pretzel sticks
• 1/4 cup toasted wheat germ
• 2 tbsp chia seeds
• 1/4 cup chocolate chips

{Make it}

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 13x9x2-inch baking pan with foil. Coat foil with spray and set aside.
2. Spread oats in a 15x10x1-inch baking pan.  Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until toasted, stirring twice.  Remove from oven and let cool.
3. Reduce oven temp to 300 degrees F.
4. In a small saucepan, combine the corn syrup, peanut butter, brown sugar, butter and honey.  Heat and stir over medium heat just until peanut butter and brown sugar are melted.  Remove from heat.  Stir in vanilla and salt.
5. In a large bowl, combine the toasted oats, rice cereal, pretzels, wheat germ, corn syrup mixture over oat mixture.  Stir to combine.
6. Press oat mixture into the prepared baking dish.  **This is where you’re supposed to** Sprinkle chocolate pieces evenly over the top.  Press chocolate pieces firmly into oat mixture.  **But… if you’re me, you won’t read the directions properly and not really use your head, so you’ll just think that you’re being smart by skipping a step and adding the chocolate chips to the oat mixture and then pooring the corn syrup mixture on top of that, melting all the chocolate chips before your eyes.  Luckily, it made for a tasty mistake.**
7. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until firm.  Cool completely in a pan on wire rack.

So, try it whatever way you choose – either add the chocolate and have a melty chocolate granola bar… or do it the way the recipe was meant to be prepared and have chocolate chips on top of the granola bar.  Like this:

I love having a relatively healthy snack to grab while I’m on the go or when I just need a little something to keep me going.  These granola bars are perfect.  Give ’em a try!