Granola Bars

I finally got around to making granola bars today. Of course I decided to try the ATK recipe first. I modified it slightly of course and may continue to do so, but it is pretty good! The kids want some chocolate chips, so I will probably have to find some mini ones sometime. Oh, and I'm wondering if I could use butter instead of vegetable oil, maybe I try the sub next week. I want to add that these dried fairly crunchy. I was looking for more of a chewy thing. They do taste good though. I'm wondering if I bake it for less time maybe that would do it. Or I may try Alton Brown's recipe and see if it is chewier.

3.5 cups old fashioned oats
1/4 cup veg oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 ounces honey
3 ounces light brown suger (I halved the recipe hence the weird measurements)
1/2 tbsp vanilla extract (oops forgot this, but they're still good!)
1 teaspoon cinnamon, optional (I opted no)
3/4 cup seeds/nuts/etc (I used sunflower seeds and sliced almonds and some coconut, probably more than 3/4 cup)
1/4 cup wheat germ (I added this, could probably add ground flax seed too though)

Preheat oven to 375. Toss together oats, salt, and oil in a 9x13 pan and toast in the oven about 20 minutes, stirring frequently. Heat honey and brown sugar together in the microwave until sugar is dissolved, stirring in cinnamon and vanilla when done. When oats are done, lower oven to 300 degrees. Stir together all ingredients in a big bowl. Dust out your 9x13 pan and spray with cooking spray. Pour your mixture into the pan and press firmly down to pack it in good. I used some parchment paper to help me along. Bake until golden, for me that was about 20 minutes. Let cool for 15 minutes, then flop out onto your counter and cut into bars. I made 24 Quaker chewy sized bars. And, these seem a lot more filling!

Granola in the oven

In my quest to make more of our food, I have granola in the oven (yes, Mom, call me crazy). We are having a hard time with breakfast now that I have banned sugary cereal from the menu. Currently the kids are eating lots of bagels and english muffins (maybe I will attempt those soon). I love cereal with milk though so decided to attempt granola. I found a recipe from Mark Bittman (NY Times writer). Here is what I did:

Ingredients
6 cups rolled oats (not quick-cooking or instant)
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup ground flax seed
1 cup dried shredded coconut, optional
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, or to taste
Dash salt
about 1/2 cup mixture of honey & real maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup raisins or chopped dried fruit, optional
Method
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, combine oats, nuts and seeds, coconut, cinnamon, salt and sweetener. Place on a sheet pan and put in oven. Bake for 30 minutes or a little longer, stirring occasionally. Mixture should brown evenly; the browner it gets without burning, the crunchier the granola will be.
2. Remove pan from oven and add raisins or dried fruit. Cool on a rack, stirring once in a while until granola reaches room temperature. Transfer to a sealed container and store in refrigerator; it will keep indefinitely.

We'll let you know how we like it later!

ETA: This is good with milk. Definitely not too sweet. It is also not clumpy at all, which is fine as long as you don't want more trail mix type granola. This would be good on yogurt too!