Granola Bars are one of my favourite snack foods. They are great to have on the go or just as a snack pre or post workout. However, the growing list of ingredients that I find on store bought granola bars scares me. Can someone out there tell me exactly what sodium hexametaphosphate is? Or, I recently read on a box “BHT (a preservative)”. What does that mean??? Not to mention that many of them are laden with transfats…
So, in my never ending quest to eat healthy and natural foods, I made my own granola bars. These ones call for prezels, and I try to use the organic ones because they tend to only use all-natural ingredients. Any ingredients can also be subbed out if you don’t like something in them. For any nut allergies out there, take out the almonds, and add raisins or dried cranberries. Be adventurous! As long as your proportions of dry ingredients to wet ingredients stays the same, they will still turn out.
I love the salty and sweet combination of these bars.
2 ½ tbsp butter
¾ cup agave syrup (you can use honey as an alternative, although these will be much sweeter with honey)
¾ cup multigrain prezels, broken into small pieces
½ cup sliced almonds
½ cup dark chocolate chips
2 cups oats
1 cup brown rice cereal (like Nature’s Path). These actually also come in other grains (like kamut) which I might try next time.
In a medium pot, melt butter, and add agave syrup. Remove from heat once the butter is melted. Add all other ingredients and stir until all ingredients are coated with the syrup and butter evenly.
Press into a greased 9 x 13 pan, and let cool in the fridge for a few hours. Cut into snack size pieces.
