Frugal Food and Healthy to Boot!

I LOVE granola bars. Perfect lunch snack, late night snack…anytime snack!Love them.HATE the price for 5 little bars that last like 2 days! So I decided to take the plunge and start making as many of the snack-y foods that I like as I can.

Not only do they taste much better (and I actually know what's going into them!) but it is WAY cheaper! I got 3 batches of granola bars out of it. And a batch lasts well over a week! I'm going to estimate here, but I'd say I spent about $25 on ingredients (I had to buy all of them, I didn't have anything on hand. So I'd say each batch cost me about $8 (I'm rounding here for the sake of mental math) and I got about 24 bars out of each batch. That's like 33 cents a bar! Ok ok ok…Enough with the calculations...here's the recipe! This is SUPER DUPER easy to make (win!) and you can add ingredients to you want to suit your taste!

Granola Bars YOUR Way
Recipe adapted from online one that I can no longer find. So sorry!

Disclaimer: So I didn't take many pictures ok...any pictures)
while making these. But I did think to take a snap of the ones
I was nibbling on (ok...scarfing down) with my morning cup of tea. 

Ingredients

• 2 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
• 1 cup sliced almonds
• 1 cup shredded coconut (loosely packed)
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup wheat germ
• 2/3 cup honey
• 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cups dried fruit(s)/nuts/seeds etc... of choice

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 F. Butter an 8x12 baking dish and line with parchment paper.
2. Toss oatmeal, almonds & coconut together on a sheet pan and bake for 10-12 mins, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. Put in a large mixing bowl and stir in wheat germ
3. Reduce oven temp to 300 F.
4. Mix in honey and vanilla extract while the oatmeal mixture is still warm. Stir in dried fruit/seeds/nuts of choice
5. Pour the mixture into your prepared baking dish and press into place. Press reallllllly realllllllly hard. Basically until you can't squish it anymore. (I find wetting my hands and pressing hard with the palms of my hands really works well.)
6. Bake for about half an hour or so at 300 F until it starts to become golden brown.
7. Remove from oven, let cool completely before cutting into bars. (A serrated knife makes this easy.)

 Storing them in an air tight container in the freezer keeps them fresh and helps them hold together better.

Enjoy!!