Homemade Granola Bars

My family loves granola bars, and they can be a convenient and relatively healthy snack to buy. But, with the rising cost of food and the ever-growing list of unhealthy ingredients in pre-packaged snacks, I knew there had to be a better way to satisfy my family, save money, and eliminate all of those "extra" ingredients that we would rather not put into our bodies. Then of course there is all of the packaging that ultimately clutters the environment - eek! So, I started making homemade granola bars, and at the request of my son's preschool teacher, I am sharing them with you here. I hope the simplicity, flexibility, and healthiness of this super-easy project inspires you to make them too! Despite my numerous photos of the process, it only takes about 10 minutes to bring it all together. Even if you have never "made" anything before, you can make granola bars - I promise!

I adapted this recipe from a couple of different ones that I had found, substituting some ingredients to work for my family's diet and tweaking it to accomodate those ingredients. Feel free to experiment with what you have on hand, and substitute for what works for you. We got our raw honey from a friend who is a beekeeper and it crystalizes in the cabinet during these winter months, so it has to be melted to work for this recipe. We also use coconut oil or olive oil instead of canola, so as to avoid genetically-modified crops (canola is often a GMO). Olive oil didn't tickle my fancy for granola bars (though I used it in a sprayer to grease the pan), so I opted for coconut oil instead, which also must be melted as it is a solid at room temperature. You can substitute for any oil you have on hand, and agave nectar can take the place of honey to make these vegan. Similarly, if you don't want to use raisins, then mini chocolate chips, mini peanut butter chips, chopped nuts, or dried cranberries would be delicious, too. (The ground flax didn't make it into the picture because we keep it in the refridgerator and I forgot to take it out until it was time to add it into the pot.)

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups quick oats

1/2 cup crisp rice cereal

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup coconut oil

1/4 cup honey

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 to 1/2 cup ground flax seed (optional)

spray oil or non-stick spray

You will also need a pot to melt the honey and coconut oil (if you are using solids as I did), or a bowl to mix everything together (if you are using liquid sweetener and oil), as well as a pan. I don't have any square or rectangular pans, other than glass casserole dishes, so I used a nine-inch round spring-form cake pan and greased it well with olive oil. If using a regular pan, you will want to line it with parchment paper (NOT waxed paper) or you will have a devil of a time trying to pry the bars from the pan.

I made a double batch in these photos - granola bars don't last long around here!

Set the oven to 350 degrees and grease (or line) your pan, then start by melting the honey and coconut oil over medium-low heat. Only heat them enough to melt them. Again, if you are using liquid honey and liquid oils, you can omit the heat and just dump them in the pot or bowl.

Once the honey and oil are melted, turn off the heat and mix in the brown sugar, salt, and vanilla and stir it for until it dissolves. You can see that the honey and coconut oil separate in the pot, which is normal and fine.

 Then add in the oats and rice cereal and stir it all together.

 Mix it really well, scraping the bottom of the pot or bowl. Take your time and let it all blend and coagulate.

If you want, add in some flax seed. I love this stuff, and put it in baked goods all the time. It doesn't change the flavor or consistency (and it can even be substituted for oil in baked goods) and adds a punch of fiber and good omega-3 fatty acids.

 Keep mixing, and eventually you will see the granola start to clump together. It should start to stay formed when pressed against the side of the pot, as you can see on the left in the photo below.

 Next, add in the raisins (or other ingredients if substituting), and mix them well.

 If, after adding the raisins, the granola loses some of its "clumping" and doesn't hold together as well, you can add some more honey or oil, or both, a little at a time, mixing well until starts to clump back together. To do this, I had to put the pot back on the stove on medium heat for a minute or two.

 Ah, that's better - see how it is staying formed when pressed against the side of the pot?

 Empty the pot or bowl into your well-greased (or lined) pan.

Press the granola down firmly with your hand, going around the pan several times if necessary, until it is well compacted all around, then tuck in the granola at the edges of the pan (or else they will be crumbly).

 Once your granola is compacted and the oven is preheated, it's time to bake!

 Bake them at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes, but keep a close eye on them and remove them immediately once you see the edges start to brown. These took 15 minutes on the bottom rack (because I was doing a double batch and was too lazy to move our pizza stone from the top rack). Watch them very closely, or you will have burned granola!

 Now comes the hard part - let them sit for at least 5 hours (I leave them overnight). Even when they feel cool, they still need more time to come together.

 (THE NEXT DAY) You can see how lovely golden the edges are, even though the top looks unchanged from when they went into the oven.

The bottom is even darker. It really doesn't take much to brown these, so don't set the oven timer and walk away!

 Once removed from the pan, You'll have one giant granola-cookie!

Now get the longest knife you have and decide how you want to cut them.

 I don't mind the rounded edges, because they all taste the same.

If you (or your spouse, toddler, or other consumer) require perfectly rectangular bars, and you are using a round pan, you can cut them like this.

Store them in a sealed container, and when packing them for a lunch or snack you can wrap them in waxed paper, a cloth napkin, or toss them into a handy re-usable snack bag as I do.

 But don't just throw away the crumbs! Granola and plain yogurt... A match made in heaven!

 There's something awesome about the tang of the yogurt and the sweetness of the granola - yum!

Enjoy!

What are you drinking?

It may look clear and clean, but if you live in the city like we do, that answer may not be as clear as you might think. We have long since filtered our water, both for drinking and for bathing (with the help of a shower filter) but even the best filters may not remove everything that we want them to. Recently I had the rather unpleasant experience of my eyes literally burning from the chlorine fumes coming off our tap water and I decided that we really did need to seek out an alternative to our current filtering situation. My first priority was our drinking water. While I understand we absorb a significant amount of water through our skin each time we bathe (the skin being the largest organ of the body), I felt more confident in the technology and efficacy of our shower filter than I did our fridge (drinking water) filter, so the beverage side of things seemed like a good starting point.

The ideal solution seemed to be a reverse osmosis (RO) filter for our whole house. Unfortunately that kind of system comes with a less than ideal pricetag, and I was apprehensive after reading some of the downfalls to RO water, so at least for now we had to look elsewhere. Some friends of ours recommended sourcing pure spring water from an area spring and provided a great resource for finding springs, (www.findaspring.com) and we had, admittedly, wanted to try some area samples for quite some time. My largest apprehension was the storage of spring water, given that large 5-gallon water jugs are typically made from BPA containing polycarbonate plastics and those that are BPA-free are both hard to find and expensive (around $20 each). As it turns out, my research for the safer non-BPA jugs was quite successful but in a very roundabout way. As luck would have it, shortly after our first son was born, in my quest to find safer alternatives to plastic, we purchased Sigg brand water bottles. In searching for the 5-gallon water jugs, I discovered that our supposedly BPA-free Sigg bottles did, in fact, contain BPA in their liners. Why was this a lucky occurrence, you ask? Well, I called our local Whole Foods where I had purchased our Sigg bottles and inquired about the trade-in program that I had read about in the online posts that mentioned the Sigg BPA controversy.  Sure enough, the employee at Whole Foods confirmed that I could exchange my BPA-containing Sigg bottles for new bottles. Furthermore, they said that I could exchange them for any bottle I chose, regardless of brand. The fortunate part about this was that Whole Foods carries BPA-free 5 gallon water jugs and they are only a few dollars more than what I paid for our Sigg bottles.

With the purchase of the new bottles and a thrifted water cooler, we now have a fantastic setup. Our first visit to the spring was a fun trip for the boys and a very rewarding adventure. Not only do we have the experiencece of enjoying the natural resources of the world around us, but the taste is amazing!

Pure, fresh, raw spring water, coming out of the side of a mountain. It is tested monthly by the town officials in the municipality in which it is located (as is required by state law) and if there are any abnormalities, it is closed. While we were filling our jugs, three other cars stopped to do the same. I spoke with one local gentleman who said that, in 15 years, the town has only had to shut down the spring once. Apparently it is very popular, and once you taste it, you will know why.  Find a spring near you and try it for yourself.  Water... the real thing!

Book It!

I always seem to have more books on my reading list than I do time to read them. I find this to be a common thread among parents, especially those with little ones like me. The trouble with this is that my reading list keeps growing longer (for there are always books that I find to add to it) and it seemed as though, when I did have a few quiet moments to enjoy a book I never had that one book that I was enjoying right handy. So, I started starting new books. Crazy, I know, but this is how it works. I keep one book in the car with me to read while in the pickup line, waiting for my son at school, during which time my youngest is usually sound asleep (in warmer months we walk to school, but with single digits it is just a bit too far for my littlest one), and I keep a second by the bedside, for evening reading. There is a third book next to the rocking chair for when I am rocking and nursing the wee one, and a fourth in my husband's vehicle for when we are on long car rides (this one is read aloud by whoever isn't driving, so we both enjoy it together). Every moment of quiet time I have, however short it may be, I am able to pick up a book and enjoy it. Remarkably, I haven't felt the least bit fragmented by my multiple-books-at-a-time project. In contrast, I actually find it refreshing in the way that I don't feel obligated to read through an entire chapter or so at a time, instead giving myself permission to pick up and leave off wherever opportunity allows, thanks to the help of some scrap paper bookmarks. Here's what is being read around here at the moment:

From the (paper) heart...

That chocolate-and-roses day is approaching, some call it Valentines Day, I always referred to it as Singles Awareness Day.  Why?  Well, when you are single, you know when it is Valentines Day.  When you're married it can become just another holiday.  Of course, when you have children, especially school-aged ones, the day usually involves a celebration of some sort and perhaps even the exchange of valentines with friends.  Sure, I'll take the chocolate and roses, but the cartoonish mass-produced valentines?  Let's just say, I'm really not a big fan when it comes to sending them myself (though we teach our children to be gateful for all they receive).  Somehow the idea of exchanging a valentine seems to have been lost in the over-commercialization of, well, everything.

Even as a child I didn't quite embrace the idea of commercialized paper cutouts that were purchased, signed, placed in construction paper mailboxes, and then almost immediately dumped in the trash can (save that one from my third-grade crush which was kept in my jewelry box until the end of junior high, despite the fact that it didn't have my name on it, only his).  Even back then, I opted for something more personal, and chose to print my valentines using our DOS-based home computer program, creating nifty little dot-matrix printed, quarter-fold cards for each of my classmates.  Arguably not much "greener", but they were certainly less commercialized and, back in 1989, anything printed on a home computer was unique.

For every season and holiday there is a certain area in those big box stores dedicated to merchandise specifically produced for that particular time of year.  While I haven't yet been able to completely avoid big box stores, I do try to avoid that particular and ever-changing section of them as I have found most of the merchandise there to have such limited use and a short lifespan which, ultimately, secures it a long, guaranteed reservation in a landfill somewhere.  There are, however, a few exceptions when I feel compelled to visit that particular area of the store.  For instance, the after-holiday clearance sale at which I splurged 29 cents each for three medium-sized red heart-shaped metal cookie cutters last year.  (Three, you ask?  Why certainly one would have been fine, but I have two very helpful children!)  This week, in anticipation of the upcoming festivities in my son's pre-K classroom, we put those little red gizmos to use!

I should warn you that I have, admittedly, never experimented with recycled paper before - though I did understand the basic idea behind it.  Buy or make a special paper screen frame, fill a washtub with water, use good quality paper ripped apart and blended with water in a blender, place the screen in the wash tub, pour the pulp in, even it out, lift the screen, squeeze the water out of the pulp mixture, and let it dry.  That all seemed a bit messy and expensive, so I made use of what I had on hand instead (you will find that to be a recurring method around here).

First, I removed the screen from my kitchen window and placed it over my kitchen sink.  It's the dead of winter, and it wasn't getting much use there anyway.  Then I took some handfuls of junk mail confetti from our paper shredder bin, put them in a blender, and poured some warm water over them.  I let it sit for a few minutes to soften the paper, then blended it to form a pulp.  I added a few drops of red food coloring (my son's choice), then blended just a bit more.  It turned a lovely pink color that we thought was pretty, or at least as pretty as mushy paper pulp could be.  I placed the three heart-shaped cookie cutters on the screen and used a spoon to scoop some of the pulp out of the blender and into the hearts.  Next, I used my fingers to spread the pulp evenly and squeeze out as much water as I could (being careful not to put too much pressure on the screen, hence why in this case I opted not to allow my over-zealous 4-year-old do the first round of squeezing).  We then removed the cookie cutters and placed the shapes on a piece of felt, then covered them with a second piece of felt.  I stacked some magazines from the recycling bin on the counter and put the felt-heart-felt sandwich on top of them, then enlisted the help of my son to push on them as hard as he could to squeeze out as much of the remaining water as possible.  The hearts had turned a nice purple color at this point, and we transferred them to a cookie sheet lined with a paper towel to dry overnight. I then replaced the window screen, before my husband returned home!

Once dried, they turned out lavender on one side and pink on the other (perhaps next time we'll try a little paint instead of food coloring) and once he finishes signing each of them with his newly-mastered handwriting, they will be distributed among his classmates to join their Spiderman and Dora construction-paper mailbox mates.  I'm not sure how much those store-bought valentines cost, but these cost us nothing, used resources we had on hand, and yet contain a little something more than just paper... the gift of our time (and perhaps a few speckles of plastic envelope windows here and there too).  Maybe next time we will throw some flower seeds into the pulp mix and make plantable valentines (or Mother's Day cards for the grandmothers - stay tuned)!

We've only just begun!

I often find that, when starting out on a new adventure, I tend to get a bit wrapped up in the "new-ness" of it all the realize that, despite having just begun, the adventure has really been in the works for quite some time! I could start this blog with the hundreds of posts that I want to share with you, but I think for now I will just start with a simple "hello", "welcome", and "thanks for stopping by!" After all, this lovely adventure has only just begun, and life isn't about the beginning or the end, it's about the journey in between - the adventures one experiences along the way.