Granola Bars....

So I think I'm becoming a little too friendly with the reduced sugar granola bars.  It's not an all the time thing, but they have a certain addictive quality to them.  So anyway... has anyone ever heard of a recipe or something along those lines to "make your own granola bar"?  I'm thinking if I can make a healthier alternative, I could turn to those instead of those alluring, delicious Quaker *******s.  Any help, thoughts, comments are appreciated.  Except from Steffi, she clearly cannot cook and any comments from her would just be used to pick on me in some capacity. 

Hmmm.... I'll see what I can find and maybe add it to the menu for the cooking class on Saturday.  It's something I was thinking about doing anyway this summer, so it's a good kick start to get on it!

Karen

A certain "addictive quality"?  interesting - I wonder what other things in your life have similar "qualities"?

There were recipes in that big old book that you printed out for me.  I don't have the energy to try to make any of them, but you might want to check that out.

Good thinking, I forgot about that book....

Instead of granola BARS, what about straight up granola?  You'd have to pre portion it, though, because I think, in my case, anyway, if I was left to a whole bag of stuff...I'd eat it by grazing through it.

anyway - if that would work...I might try to come up with something over the next few weeks....

sparkpeople.com has a lot of granola bar recipes, you would have to look through them and see which one is closest to what you are looking for.

I'd love to see any granola bar recipes you all can come up with. 

I saw this one on TV recently and it sounded yummy. You could use malitol brown sugar and the sugar free honey sub.

Ingredients

• 8 ounces old-fashioned rolled oats, approximately 2 cups
• 1 1/2 ounces raw sunflower seeds, approximately 1/2 cup
• 3 ounces sliced almonds, approximately 1 cup
• 1 1/2 ounces wheat germ, approximately 1/2 cup
• 6 ounces honey, approximately 1/2 cup
• 1 3/4 ounces dark brown sugar, approximately 1/4 cup packed
• 1-ounce unsalted butter, plus extra for pan
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 6 1/2 ounces chopped dried fruit, any combination of apricots, cherries or blueberries

Directions

Butter a 9 by 9-inch glass baking dish and set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

 

Spread the oats, sunflower seeds, almonds, and wheat germ onto a half-sheet pan. Place in the oven and toast for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

 

In the meantime, combine the honey, brown sugar, butter, extract and salt in a medium saucepan and place over medium heat. Coo****il the brown sugar has completely dissolved.

 

Once the oat mixture is done, remove it from the oven and reduce the heat to 300 degrees F. Immediately add the oat mixture to the liquid mixture, add the dried fruit, and stir to combine. Turn mixture out into the prepared baking dish and press down, evenly distributing the mixture in the dish and place in the oven to bake for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely. Cut into squares and store in an airtight container for up to a week.

Is this Alton's recipie?  Or Ina's?  It looks REALLY familiar to me...and I was looking at it as well to possibly make!