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.