2016 Monthly Challenge: Granola Bars

So this one time I made a fakey New Years resolution to push myself to try 1 new thing a month on this blog.

Month 1 – I made Funnel Cakes on January 31st. Barely squeaked by on that one.

Then it got worse.

February. Wanna guess what day I made these Granola bars? You guessed it, the last day of the month. BUT. It’s a leap year. So it’s even that much worse. I made these on February 29th. Commence eye roll. I’m ridiculous.

Then. THEN. I waited 3 weeks to type it up to tell you all about it.

Anyway.

Granola Bars.

As usual, I didn’t follow directions very well. I used the cool infographic on this blog post to make homemade granola bars. If I would have actually read the blog post I would have learned you have to do 1/2 rolled oats and 1/2 quick oats, otherwise the granola bars are too soft and crumbly and don’t even stay together well enough to cut. Oh well. They were for my kiddo and he LOVED them. I bought quick oats so that I can make these again and hopefully they will be more “bar” like. Don’t be like me. Use 1/2 and 1/2. 🙂

This is a SUPER adaptable recipe. You can substitute in any kind of nuts (or leave them out if you are a nut-free home), any kinds of fruits, even chocolate chips or other small goodies. Maybe it’s my crazy postpartum nursing mom brain, but I totally see lactation potential here. Just sayin’.

The following is the version that I made and my kiddo loved.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Granola Bars

Ingredients:

5 cups oats (I used all rolled. It would be better to use 1/2 rolled and 1/2 quick)

1/2 tsp baking soda

2/3 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup honey

2 tbsp almond milk

1 1/2 cups raspberry jam

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*.

2. Mix together oats and baking soda in a large bowl. Set aside.

3. Mix together the rest of the ingredients. It will be a wet sloshy sticky mess.

4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

5. Combine all ingredients and pour into prepared pan.

 

6. Spread as evenly and flat as possible.

7. Bake for 20 minutes then let cool completely in pan. I actually left mine overnight.

8. Lift out of pan with parchment paper and cut. (Mine was so crumbly it wasn’t even solid enough to lift out. I had to cut it in the pan.)

I thought I took pictures of them cut buuuuuut guess I didn’t. Oh well.

Next time! 😀

The recipe made a lot. If you have multiple kiddos it may not last long, but for us it was a lot. I froze some for later.