Homemade Granola Bars

Hello Nuggets! How was your weekend?

Mine involved farmers markets, mimosas, and absolutely no school work 🙂

The homemade granola bars have been a recipe of many trials.

I made a blueberry walnut flax variety which was okay. I like the topping combo but the base wasn’t sweet enough and it was a bit too chewy…and oaty

Then I tried a carob pretzel variety which I accidentally burned a little, but the pretzels weren’t cutting it somehow and the carob chips didn’t cook well.

Finally I figured it out and made two varieties too! You can easily sub your sugar preference, puffed whatever preference and pumpkin butter in place of the apple butter.

Here’s a view of the pre Oven-Lovin’I had just a bit of extra batter so I put it in these valentine themed silicone cups.

Post Oven-Lovin’ shot

The two varieties I made were a Carob Pretzel Granola Bar and a GORP Granola Bar

Both playing on the sweet and salty thing.

makes about 10 large bars

• 1.5 c oats
• 1/2 c oat bran
• 1.5 c puffed millet
• 1/4 c chia
• 1/4 c flax
• 1/4 c protein powder
• 1/8 c sucanat
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 t baking powder
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1/2 c almond milk
• 1/2 c apple butter (or pumpkin butter)
• 1/2 c mashed banana
• 1/2 t vanilla

1. Combine all ingredients except for milk, apple butter, banana, and vanilla in a bowl
2. Combine milk, apple butter, banana, and vanilla in a bowl
3. Mix the wet with the dry
4. Mix in the Add-ins
5. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes
6. Let cool

GORP Granola Bar Add-ins

• 1/2 c peanuts
• 1/2 c raisins
• 1/4 c chocolate covered sunflower seeds (these are UNBELIEVABLE when cooked)

 

Carob Pretzel Add-ins

• 1/2 c crushed pretzel sticks (the stick aspect is key – trust me)
• 1/3 c carob chips

I found that the pretzels and carob chips turned out better when I put them on top of the granola bar instead of within the mix.

Other Ideas for Add-ins

• Walnuts and Blueberries
• M&Ms and Marshmallows
• Dried Cranberries, Almonds, and Carob/Chocolate
• Peanut Butter and Dried Cranberries
• Peanut Butter and Marshmallow

The GORP variety was by absolute favorite!!! The sunflower seeds were insanely delicious when cooked. Brought out the nutty flavor. Plus you can never go wrong with a peanut raisin combo.

Which combo sounds the best to you?

x

Casey

Also Happy Halloween!

Granola Bar Mayhem

 

 

Before I start making granola bars of my own I thought I’d give  few recipes a try until I got comfortable with it myself.

So I looked in my database of recipes I’ve flagged over the past year and came up with the two best yet different granola bar recipe

Ashley’s monster bars and Jess’s birdseed bars

I got a mini loaf pan this weekend and used it for granola bar mayhem.

I pretty much followed the recipes on all of these but added an extra scoop of flax and chia here and there. Maybe a little protein powder. Experimentation, my dears.

Monster Bars – some topped with jam, some with jam in the middle of the mixture.
Birdseed Bars

Both distinctly different and tasty in their own way. I love anything seedy so the birdseed bars had that going on. And the malty flavor felt so…Autumn

I so wish that I had thrown in the cherries I had bought for this exact occasion. They were needing a chewy fruit in it to balance the walnuts.It took me a little while to post because I was still figuring out the best place for lighting in the house. But then, but then we got our new kitchen table. This thing is glossy and I intend on taking all my food shots on it. Woop!

The monster bars were fantastically chewy. And the banana almond butter combo was a clear winner. I think Ashley was right, these are sweet enough on their own! I’m omitting the sugar all together next time.

Funny, it kind of looks like Weetbix.

Much more trials and tribulations to come on this department, but they’re both definitely handy to have around the house this week and an easy thing to throw in my lunch box.

Casey

RAVENous

This weekend started of great. I got off work a little early, took a little detour through the Boulder Whole Foods.

Wow, this puts most other Whole Foods to shame (maybe even Austin…) The Bulk Section was absolutely unreal. I foresee myself picking up some of the fig balsamic vinaigrette. mmmm

Then I came home and it was still so gorgeous out so I cycled down the Cherry Creek Bike Path for awhile.

I swear I fall in love with this state everyday. There are countless private bike paths and parks.

I need to start making my camera attached to my hip, there were so many beautiful scenes along the way.

Has anyone ever run with their camera? Where do you put it?

Then the weekend took a turn for the worse on Saturday morning. Sick as a dog when I woke up. Just extremely achy everywhere.

Though I can probably attribute this to my lack of sleep (and the fact that our windows are broken, so the loud freshman a block away are clearly audible)

I’ve had multiple people recommend Mack’s Ear Plugs over anything else. I’m going to pick them up this week and let you know how they go. 

It was really awful timing to get sick since this upcoming week is so full on. Even worse was I lost my appetite and had to scrap some of my cooking/baking plans for a later date.

But…luckily come Sunday I was well slept (albeit in the couch in our living room) went for a jog and came back feeling refreshed and RAVENous. Ravenous for making granola bars (to come) and ravenous for victory.

If you can’t tell by the overuse of the word ravenous -we’re back in action! Ravens slaughter the Rams and we’re off to a great start to the week.

I’m off to continue this whole sleep thing.

x

Casey