Granola Bars

Recently, I've been thinking about ways to eat in what I believe is a more healthful way. My family has a very busy schedule and I've found myself buying a lot more convenience food (granola bars, fruit snacks, etc.) than I ever used to. The reality is that these things make packing lunches, making snacks, etc. so much easier. I think with a little planning, though, and some time spent on the weekend, I can make a lot of these convenience foods from scratch and then they will be available during our busy times of the week.

Today's goal -- Granola Bars. I've made granola bars before and, I will admit, they were AWESOME. They tasted just like the Nature Valley Fruit and Nut bars, but without the preservatives, etc.  Today I wanted to see if I could equal the awesome-ness with another recipe, though.

I followed the recipe I found here (the rest of the site is awesome, too) with my own variations:

• For my fruit/nut combo I used craisins, slivered almonds and sunflower seeds -- because I had all these things on hand and didn't have to go to the store. However, I would like to add other dried fruit (apricots maybe) and maybe some flax seed. Not a big fan of walnuts, but I think peanuts would probably be good, too..however,
• For my nut butter I went with peanut butter (again, on hand). I think adding peanuts as well might overwhelm the whole thing with peanut flavor instead of a nice blend. It is worth experimenting with.
• Instead of oat flour, I used wheat germ (yep, on hand, and figured that it had a similar consistency to oat flour)
• Allow the bars to cool completely while in the pan. I tried to move mine to my cooling rack when just out of the oven and they weren't set up enough -- they fell apart w/out the support of the pan. Maybe I didn't cook them quite long enough? They are browned, though. Anyway, I just popped them back into the pan and pressed it back down and they set up fine (but I did burn my finger during this whole process...clumsy).
• These taste better than my fake Nature Valley bars.

The author of Smitten Kitchen says that these guys taste like the ones from Whole Foods. As a fan of Whole Foods who only gets to go there once a year on my annual pilgrimage to Bellevue, I will say that I am looking forward to comparing.

I have a plan for replacing fruit snacks, too, my friends. It's called dried fruit :-) Sometimes it is nice to be able to replace things with stuff that closely resembles the store bought goodness. Obviously dried fruit and fruit snacks don't resemble each other. We will all just have to survive.