Granola Bars

My brother in law sent me this recipe early this week because I wanted to make some for our family camping trip. They are so easy to make and they turned out wonderful. This is a recipe that can go in a lunch box as it can be made without nuts plus it will probably cost you less to make these and freeze them then to buy granola bars for the lunch box.


Its one of the only granola bar recipes that I have made and they turned out (that means they didn't crumble and have to be used as granola cereal). I think that the reason these ones are so good is because I ground the ingredients in a coffee grinder first. This helps the consistency and stay in shape better. The recipe is an add your own favorites...so don't be afraid to try!

I did look on line for some recipes that called for the same ingredients and I found out that if you use a 14 oz can of sweet and condensed milk you can use ~ 6 1/2 cups of dry ingredients. However I only had a 10 oz can so I used ~ 4 cups of dry ingredients. Here is what I did...


Granola bars

2 cups of oat meal (grind)
1/2 cup wheat germ
pumpkin seeds (grind)
Cream of wheat
sunflower seeds
coconut

All the dry equaled 4 cups

Then add one can of sweet and condensed milk and 2 Tbsp melted butter. Its suppose to have the consistency of muffin mix. Mine was a little thick. Next you pat this into a 9*13 pan. You can either line it with parchment paper or grease it. Cook on 350 for 20 minutes. Then this is the KEY...let cool completely before trying to cut it. If you wanted to you could cool in the fridge overnight. Cut into bar and then wrap individually for storage so it doesn't dry out.


***I should mention that I didn't add the chocolate chips into the batter but decided to sprinkle them on the top and then pat them into the top of the bar. ****

This would be easy to make peanut free. Just choose your dry ingredients carefully. Here are some thing you could make them with in addition to the oat meal and wheat germ, which you could add more of it you wanted.

- ground flax
- cranberries
- raisins
- chocolate chips
- coconut
- dried fruit pieces (kiwi, mango, pineapple, banana chips)
- corn meal
- cream of wheat
- any ground up cereal

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