Homemade Granola Bars

The middle of last month my son and I left the confines of our small apartment and headed for the Florida beach.  My husband was scheduled to come down later in the week - which left him with lots of extra time since there was no wife or 2 month old baby in the house.  I soon discovered what he did with his time.

He watched food documentaries.

Lots of them.

Needless to say, we are now slowly switching over to an organic diet.  We've decided to make our snacks when possible (which I did before but mostly on our cookie consumption) and to be more careful about what kind of snacks we consume.  Well, that got the baker in me thinking.  

I love granola and will spend a lot of money on it.  Since we're not millionaires, I figured I could probably make it myself.  I would know exactly what was in it (more importantly, what was not in it) and it would probably be better for me.  So I looked up my go-to baking blog My Baking Addiction and searched out "granola".  She had this good lookin' recipe up, so I decided to give it a whirl - with a few changes of my own.

I'm not a huge fan of fruit in things, so I traded the cherries for flaked coconut and also I mixed in some pecan pieces into the slivered almonds.

So in a large bowl mix:

2c rolled oats

3/4c packed brown sugar

1/2c wheat germ (FYI you can find this in the cereal isle)

3/4t ground cinnamon (I also added 1/4t each of ground ginger, nutmeg, and cloves)

1c all purpose flour

3/4t salt

After mixing the ingredients above, make a well in the center of your bowl and add:

1/2c honey

1 egg

1/2c coconut oil

The original recipe called for vegetable oil, but I decided to use coconut oil instead for the added benefits.  You can actually see the oil in the photo above - it's the white ring around the egg yolk.  Coconut oil is a solid when cooled below 77 degrees and a liquid above that...so obviously, it's cooling down in this photo and becoming a solid.

2t vanilla extract

Mix all that loveliness together and when it's well combined mix in:

3/4c flaked coconut (sweet or unsweetened is your preference.  I used sweetened)

3/4c dark chocolate chips

3/4c slivered almond and pecan pieces

Flatten mixture in a 9x13 baking pan lined with parchment and bake for about 30 -35 minutes at 350 degrees.  I added a little honey drizzle on top with a sprinkle of the coconut, chocolate chips, and nuts.  When it's all done, it should be golden brown around the edges.  Let it cool in the pan on a wire rack for about a half and hour and then cut them up.  My Baking Addiction gives the tip to make sure and not let them cool all the way or they will crumble when cut.  Here's a photo or two of my lovelies (oh, and don't make my mistake of cooking them too long...not as pretty to look at, but the still tasty delicious!)

I hope you enjoyed my little step-by-step on making your own granola bars!  It was super easy and tasty too, plus, you don't get all the preservatives and added fat that the store bought bars have!  Thanks for stopping by!!