That’s Swell

The other day I had the day off of work. And amazingly enough I found myself with “nothing” to do. We have one car, and since David had taken it to work, I couldn’t go thrifting or garage sale-ing (which was probably a good thing, since I spend too much time shopping anyway).

This is when I am glad I don’t have a TV. If I did, I would have spent the morning on the couch instead of being productive. I even contemplated going down to our community lounge and watching their TV!

So with this new found “boredom” I decided to make myself busy and finally start making a few things from scratch I have said I would.

So I decided to make homemade granola bars. We were getting ready to go on vacation and they’d come in handy for the long plane rides. I got the recipe from here because it didn’t require corn syrup or peanut butter. I did alter it a bit, so here’s what I came up with.

Homemade Granola Bars (taken from HappyFoody)

2 cups ground oats (blended quick oats in food processor)
1 cup quick oats
1/2 t sea salt
1/4 t cinnamon
1/4 cup pure maple syrup didn’t have so I used extra honey
1/3 cup fruit sweetener or other thick honey alternative didn’t have so I used raw honey
1/4 cup plain non-dairy milk (Almond Breeze)
2 T canola oil

Optional Extras (I also used whatever I had around to mix in)
1/3 cup of Dried Cranberries (put through processor)
1/3 cup of chopped pecans (for the heck of it, had extras from baking)
3 T of milled Flax Seed (first time baking with it, adds nutritional value)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients into the dry mixtures, stirring until well combined. Transfer the mixture to a lightly oiled 8 x 8 or 8 x 12 baking dish and press down until it’s evenly distributed. Using a sharp knife, cut to mark out the bars before you bake them to make it easier to fully cut and remove the bars once baked. Bake for 19-21 minutes, then remove and let cool in pan. Once cool, use a sharp knife to fully cut the bars, then remove with spatula.

The Results
They turned out well. Probably a little dry – because I added so many “extras” I should’ve increased the honey. Next time I will look for agave nectar or some other fruit sweetener alternative to honey. I wrapped a few individually in plastic wrap, and the rest went in a Tupperware to take along on the plane.

More photos here.