Homemade Granola Bars

Lets be honest, I'm sure you've got tons of extra time and lack of ideas for things to bake/make today, right? I mean, its not like there is a holiday completely based on eating delicious things soon... haha just kidding. But I did want to share these super delicious homemade granola bars I made because I just uploaded the pictures.

I modified this recipe from Smitten Kitchen (which is a superb website, btw).


Ingredients:
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup ground flaxseed (I took whole flaxseed and used by coffee bean grinder)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 to 3 cups dried fruits and nuts (I chose sunflower seeds, dried granberries, golden raisins and regular raisins)
1/3 cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 tablespoons melted butter
1/4 cup honey

**differences from the original - I added more regular oats and used flaxseed and wheat germ instead of oat flour. I also used brown sugar instead of regular sugar.
To start I just dumped all the ingredients together in a bowl in whatever order I happened to grab things in and mixed away with a wooden spoon. The original recipe calls for dry vs wet ingredient mixing, I just skipped that.

Line an 8x8 pan with parchment paper and dump the mixture in. and press it so its even. Now, I turned on my oven to 350 since I forgot to preheat it. I baked mine for 30 minutes since I think my oven is a little hot-tempered. Just got for a little brown on top. Then they'll look like this:


Super delicious looking. Now I let mine cool in the pan all the way, pull out the parchment paper and cut into bars. I wrapped mine in plastic wrap and enjoyed them all week long!