Chewy Homemade Granola Bars

If you haven't made granola bars before, you definitely should as these are delicious!!  I saw these over at The Bird's Papaya and knew I had to try them.  

This easy recipe is from allrecipes.com (though tweaked a little) and makes a 9 x 13 pan which I cut into 18 bars ... actually 17 bars if you take into account the one I ate for "quality control" purposes - YUM!  

These granola bars take only about 5 minutes of prep time and best if all, there are no preservatives or additives in them like the bought ones.  Next time I make them, I think I will try adding dried cranberries instead of the chocolate chips just for variety.  

Chewy Homemade Granola Bars

4 1/2 c rolled oats

1c flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla extract (I used artificial)

5/6 c margarine or butter (essentially just a bit shy of a whole cup)

1/3 c brown sugar

3/4 c honey

2 c mini chocolate chips (I used 1 c of reg. chocolate chips)

• Heat oven to 325 degrees.
• Mix margarine with the sugar.
• Add in the baking soda, honey, vanilla extract together.
• Add in the flour, oats and stir to coat evenly.
• Add chocolate chips.

Press mixture into a greased 9x13 pan and bake for 18-22 minutes or until golden ... remove and cut into bars but wait until they are completely cooled before removing them from the pan.  

Enjoy!

- Kristin -