Chewy Granola Bars

I am seriously enjoying the summer! I hope you are too. We haven’t done much really, but it’s been so nice not to be tied to a strict schedule! The girls are staying up late watching movies and sleeping past 8:00 am. It’s wonderful.

This weekend, we are headed up to the White Mountains, as we often do in July, for a little getaway and I can’t wait! It rains almost every day up there, which is a huge deal to us Arizonans!

In preparation for the trip, I’ve been thinking about what to bring along to eat.

One of my favorite snacks to make…and to eat are these chewy granola bars. They only have a handful of ingredients and are so much healthier than the prepackaged processed food type.

Did I mention that they only take minutes to make and you can either bake them for a few minutes and cut them into bars or just roll them into balls and refrigerate them for a bite-size snack on the go?! Healthy snacking doesn’t get any easier and our girls LOVE them.

One thing I really like about this recipe is that there are lots of ways to alter it; you can make them a different way every time! This is our standard favorite because we have one girl who doesn’t like raisins and another who doesn’t like seeds. This way no one complains (score for me!), but I personally think adding raisins, dried cranberries or blueberries, seeds, peanuts, or coconut would definitely take these to another level! You can also easily double the recipe to make more bars if needed.

Chewy Granola Bars

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Course: Snacks, Sides, & Appetizers

Author: Kristine

Ingredients

• 1-1/2 cups rolled oats
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts or almonds
• 1/2 cup natural peanut butter or almond butter
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/2 ripe banana
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1/4 tsp vanilla
• 1/8 tsp sea salt

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• In a large bowl, mix all ingredients until well blended and sticky.
• Fold in chocolate chips.
• Line a 8 x 8 or 7 x 9 baking dish with foil and press mixture evenly into pan. (I used a 7 x 9 Pyrex dish for these bars)
• Bake for 20 minutes, rotating halfway through.
• Lift foil from pan, let cool completely, and cut into bars.
  
  

optional method:

• Mix dough as above.
• Roll dough into tablespoon size balls and place on wax paper.
• Chill in refrigerator for at least 1 hour prior to eating.

Notes

*Optional mix-ins: Raisins, cranberries, seeds, peanuts, or coconut

Did you make this recipe? We want to see!Mention @kristineinbetween or tag #kinbetween!