Homemade Granola Bars

During my pregnancy with Parker, I would wake up most nights in the wee hours of the morning so hungry.  I got in the habit of keeping granola bars in my nightstand (chewy of course because otherwise it would leave crumbs in the bed) so I wouldn't have to get up when the hunger struck.  

Now that I'm nursing I've discovered how important it is to keep food in the diaper bag for me (since Parker doesn't tolerate me eating fast food very well).  Twice each month I would make my grocery store run and buy 3 boxes of granola bars.  Yes... I can go through 5-6 boxes of granola bars each month but in my defense, there's only 5 little 1 oz bars in each box.  I decided to try and make my own granola bars full of good healthy grains.  They came out so wonderfully!  I love them and they aren't as sweet as the store bought ones.  Best part, they're a fraction of the price.  Happy baking!

Granola Bars

2 cups old fashioned rolled oats

½  cup raw sunflower seeds

1 cup sliced almonds

½ cup flax seeds (you can substitute wheat germ or oat bran)

½ cup honey

¼ cup packed dark brown sugar

2 Tbsp butter

2 tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp kosher salt

6 oz of dried fruit

Directions

Butter a 9x9 glass baking dish. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spread the oats, sunflower seeds, almonds and flax seeds on a sheet pan.  Place in the oven and toast for 15 minutes.

Combine honey, brown sugar, butter, vanilla extract and salt in a medium saucepan.  Place over medium heat and cook until the brown sugar dissolves.

Once the oat mixture is done, reduce the oven heat to 300 degrees.

Add the oat mixture to the liquid mixture, add the dried fruit and stir. Turn mixture out into the prepared baking dish and press down evenly.  Bake for 25 minutes.

Allow to cool most of the way before cutting into bars (if they cool all the way they’ll be really hard to cut)… but don’t try to remove them from the pan until completely cooled.