Monday, June 28, 2010

Granola-cereal bars



Paying for granola bars? why would you do that? Whip up your own granola bars at home, with the taste you like, no preservatives, no weird chemicals and healthy ingredients. 

Yes, I know, I sound like a TV commercial. But for real, why would you buy granola bars when you can make them yourself, for half the price and double the flavor?. My friends from Swampscott, love granola bars. I was going up for the night and thought, what about you bring them some homemade ones? 

Now, as usual, when you try to whip up things without thinking too much about it, I had some problems with the ingredients. Basically I thought I had a ton of oatmeal and I didn't. But that's what cheerios are for, right? Also, this bars will help you clean the pantry from that cup of nuts you forgot you had, that half cup of dried fruit you didn't even know was there and so on. See? perfect!




I did not have time to let them cool completely before I cut them, so they were sort of a sticky mess. A sticky tasty mess! Now I'll stop talking and I'll give you the recipe. 

1 cup oatmeal
1 cup crushed cheerios (or another cup of oatmeal)
2 tablespoons ground flax seeds (heart healthy!)
1 cup chopped apricots (or cranberries or raisins or whatever you want)
1 cup slivered almonds
3/4 cup honey
4 tablespoons butter

Note: you could also change 1/4 cup of the honey for peanut butter, add some shredded coconut or switch some almonds for a different kind of nut.  Play around!

Preheat your oven to 350 F 

Cover a baking pan with two sheets of parchment paper. Leave edges so that you can use them as handles to pull the bars out of the pan. 

Chop the apricots. Combine the nuts, oatmeal, crushed cereal and dried fruit in a bowl. In the microwave, heat up the butter and honey for a couple minutes, until the butter is melted and the honey is hot. Pour the mixture over the cereal and mix until combined. Transfer the mixture to the baking dish and spread evenly pushing to flatten the surface. Bake for 30 minutes. 

Let them cool completely before cutting, for real, otherwise it becomes sort of a nightmare.


By the way! I forgot to mention I got the Happy 101 blog award from Adriana at Bittersweet baker. This very young lady, who I share name with, is a very talented baker and photographer and I'm very honored that she gave me the award. Go check her out!




I'm supposed to pass this award and such things but right now I'm lacking the necessary focus to think about who this is going to. In a few days maybe, I'll try. Promise.

10 comments:

Carmen said...

Aquestes barretes son genials, li faig al meu home per que se les emporti quan fa bici, tastarem aquesta recepta, gràcies ;-))
Felicitats pel premi!!!
Petonets

Lydia said...

Me encantan este tipo de barritas, y más si son caseras como estas, que las puedes hacer a tu gusto. Que ricas te han quedad! bss

Adalberto Nicholas Garza said...

These sound delicious! I'm going to try making them.

-Nick

Carmen said...

Tens un regalet al meu blog.
Petonets

leticia said...

Acabo de descubrir tu blog y me quedo encantada con esta primera entrada que veo. Me gusta!
Te seguiré.
Saludos,

Sabores de Colores said...

Mmmm me encantan las barritas de cereales!!!estas se ven super super deliciosas!!!
saluditoss

redmenace said...

I wholeheartedly agree. These look lovely!

Maria said...

Babyyyy, estic mes q segura q qui les va rebre les va disfrutar a saco, i va agrair la teva visit ;-)P!!
Per cert, he provat uns cereals, els kashi, golean crunch, megabons, em faran mal, no paro!!!! Si els trobes, prova'ls!!
Muuuuuaaaasssss

Ksenia said...

Ok, now I don't know whether write to you in Spanish (or Catalan, by the way) or English. I suppose I'll stick with English so more people will understand the comment (although now that I am thinking about it...who would like to read it anyway? O.o)

Can you believe that I have never tried doing cereal bars at home? I did granola last week, charred it in the oven and decided to transform it in cookies. They didn't turn out bad, by the way :) I love the "clean your pantry" (or fridge) kind of recipes. They are the best ones! :D

glutoniana said...

Què bones este barretes per agafar forçes en un dia de caminada :)

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