Granola is good for the soul!

I love granola bars. I don't usually buy them because I find them full of crap, to be honest.  I do have a soft spot for Country Harvest though, and Kashi because I like the ingredients, and calories (let's be honest). 

I am known for making everything from scratch. I adore breaking a recipe down and figuring out how to do everything from the beginning.  For example, I could buy pierogis but I ADORE making the dough and filling from scratch and then boiling the final product, smothering it in butter (I decided not to count calories for that recipe) and sitting down and devouring it.  There is something so satisfying about doing it from scratch and knowing that nothing was bought pre-made. 

I have tried many a recipe for granola bars, and none had turned out the way I really wanted. I wanted a crunch, maybe some chocolate, but in the end, I wanted to know where all the ingredients came from, and I am okay if the 'shelf' life of them is only a week or two because there are no preservatives. 

A dear childhood friend Karen, posted on Facebook that she had just made granola bars and that she couldn't stop eating them.  You see, Karen and I share a love of cheese, and let's face it, anyone who loves cheese as much as I do - well you can trust anything they bake or cook :)

So here is Karen's recipe, with a few modifications (it wouldn't be me if I didn't throw my own twist into it :))

Ingredients

2 cups quick oats 
½ cup packed brown sugar (or 1/3 cup, depending on desired sweetness)
¼ cup wheat germ or wheat bran
¼ cup coconut
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup all-purpose flour (or whole wheat)
¾ tsp salt
½ cup honey
1 egg, beaten
½ cup vegetable oil
1 tbsp vanilla extract 
½ tsp maple extract (optional)
1 cup raisins or dried fruit (optional)
Chocolate chips (optional)
Slivered almonds or nuts of your choice (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Line a cookie sheet with foil and spray with PAM or grease with butter. 

2. In a large bowl, mix together the oats, brown sugar, wheat germ, cinnamon, flour, raisins and salt. Make a well in the center, and pour in the honey, egg, oil and vanilla. Mix well using your hands. Pat the mixture evenly into the prepared pan, leaving about an inch and a half of empty space at one end.

And here are my tweaks:

- I toasted the oats and nuts 
- I used 1/2c Quinoa and 1/2c whole wheat flour
- Grapeseed oil instead of vegetable oil
- added sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, cashews, pecans, almonds, walnuts AND chocolate chips (a few tbsp of each) 

- Added 3 tbsp of pure Ontario maple syrup
- added 1 tsp of almond extract

- omitted the maple extract because I didn't have it

- used 1 tsp of Moroccan pink sea salt

- added 2 tbsp of uncooked white quinoa

- added 2 tbsp of black chia seeds
- added 2 tbsp of flax seeds

I also made a second batch without the chocolate, and instead added chopped organic crystallized ginger and organic goji berries.

I put the entire batch in a tightly sealed container and put 'em in the freezer. I pull out what I want, when I want them. 

Enjoy and thanks so much Karen for this wonderful recipe!