Healthy Snacking: Homemade Granola Bars Recipe

Whether on the go or at work or school, an energy-boosting granola bar is a great snack. To make them healthier try making this Home-made Granola Bars; it’s an easy recipe and more important: you can tweak and change it to make it ideal for yourself and your family.

Healthy Snacking: Homemade Granola Bars

Homemade granola bars with chocolate and coconut

Image via: Fabtastic Eats

Ingredients

(makes about 24 bars)

2 cups regular rolled oats

¾ cup packed brown sugar

½ cup wheat germ

¾ tsp cinnamon, grounded

1 cup all-purpose flour (or whole grain)

¾ cup raisins

¾ tsp salt

½ cup honey

1 egg, beaten

½ cup vegetable or canola oil

2 tsp vanilla extract

Home-made granola bars are a great and healthy snack

Image via: My Natural Family

Directions

1. Grease a 9×13 inch baking pan generously and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Take a large bowl and mix together the oats, sugar, wheat germ, flour, cinnamon, salt and raisins. Make a little well in the center and pour in the honey, the beaten egg, oil and vanilla. Now mix well with your hands. Put the mixture into the pan and flatten it with your hands.
3. Bake for about 20-30 minutes or less, until they become brown at the edges. Let it cool down for 5 minutes and, while still warm, cut into bars.
4. Keep them in a ziploc bag to keep them chewy for a longer time.

Home-made granola bars with chocolate chips

Image via: Craftsy

This recipe is just the beginning. You can add pretty much any dried fruit or nut into the mixture, use more or less raisins and cinnamon or cut down on the sugar a little. Here are some ideas to try: add dried cranberries and sliced almonds; use chocolate chips in the mixture, dip one side into melted chocolate or just drizzle a little melted chocolate over the cool bars and add shredded coconut; try adding some peanut butter or apple sauce. You can choose to make them more crunchy by using more nuts or add seeds or trail mix, whatever you might have in your pantry.  And as the pumpkin season is here, try experimenting with some canned pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice to get a unique seasonal treat. The possibilities are almost endless!

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