i’ve decided to make our own granola bars, again. the packaged ones are so full of additives and unnecessary junk my family does not need. i checked out a couple of recipes from here and here, but ultimately made my own version as i didn’t have the right ingredients or patience for some of the steps..


so, here we go… in a bowl in no particular order i chucked in


2 cups oats
1/2 cup unsweetened cocunut
3/4 cup dried cranberries
10 dried plums, cut up
2 large tblsp cashew butter
1 large tblsp butter
1/2 to 3/4 cups of honey
1/4 cup sesame seeds
sprinkling of salt


mix it up really well. after each ingredient or so i stirred and stirred as it’s so sticky. 

obviously you can add or decrease whatever ingredient you want. i suggest tasting it as you go. 

i found ours to be too sweet, that’s why i added the cashew butter (plus, dear hubby finished off the almonds i thought we still had, which i was planning of crunching up and putting in).

once all the ingredients were mixed in well together, i oiled an oven safe dish and pressed in the granola mixture. i pressed down hard to ensure that any air would be squeezed out and that the bars would hopefully have an even texture to them.

i was also hoping this would make them less crumbly. that was the problem with previous bars. i sectioned off the bars before putting them in the oven. i used a knife and spatula to really try and separate the sections.

i pre-heated the oven to 400F and placed the dish in for only 5 minutes. i wanted the ingredients to adhere to each other. then i set the dish to cool for several hours first on the counter and then in the fridge, in hopes the stickyness would really stick and make the bars more shapely and not crumbly.

final verdict: kids and dear hubby loved ’em! i think they could have used less honey and more crunch, like almonds. they were so easy to make, so it’ll become part of my kitchen repertoire for sure. especially, since there is so much room for creativity depending on the ingredients available and the seasons.