Homemade Granola Bars

I'm a sucker for a good granola bar, but I'm also a lazy cook. This recipe is pretty much the answer.

Of course I made a few changes. I added white chocolate chips and craisins (YUM!). Make sure you follow the directions on cooking the butter, honey, and brown sugar mixture, as these do fall apart if you don't. That didn't stop us from eating the first batch anyway! 

I just stirred in my chips and craisins and eliminated the whole "pressing" step {lazy}.

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup honey
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups oats
1 cup crispy rice cereal
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons white chocolate chips

2 tablespoons craisins

In a large bowl, stir oats, rice cereal, white chocolate chips, and craisins together. Set aside. In a small pot, melt butter, honey and brown sugar together over medium high heat until it comes to a bubble. Reduce the heat and cook 2 minutes. Pour in vanilla and stir. Pour over dry ingredients and mix well to moisten all ingredients. Pour into lightly greased small jelly roll pan {about 12x8x1} and press out to be about 3/4 inch in thickness. {If your pan isn't small enough, pack the mixture into one side. You really want to press them down so they stick together. I use a piece of wax paper sprayed with a bit of cooking spray}. Cool on a countertop to room temperature for two hours or until set before cutting into bars. Wrap in parchment or plastic wrap and store at room temperature.

Recipe Notes: If your granola bars don't seem to be staying together when you cut them, you may have not boiled the mixture long enough...you want it to make it just past the softball stage. OR you made them too thin or you didn't pack them in tight enough. Stick them in the fridge for 20 minutes and that should help keep them together. {Be sure not to keep them in there too long or else they'll become super hard!} The next time you make them, try boiling for an extra 15 seconds or so.

(original recipe/credit)

Happy eating!

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It's Snacking Time!

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Snack History

Let me start by saying I don't think I remember snacking very much as a kid. That doesn't mean it didn't happen. I just don't remember it.

But of course there were snacks, so here we go:

1. potato chips -- that should be enough in and of itself. Back in the day there were no flavors. They were just potato chips. But . . . 

2. Pringles -- my maternal grandparents had Pringles, more than just potato chips. Stacking and duck lips were involved here.

3. Potato sticks (are you sensing a them here?) -- my paternal grandmother provided these. Matchstick fried potatoes that it was simpler to pour directly into my mouth than try to pick up.

4. Krispy Kreme Crullers -- there for awhile my mom would bring home a box of these each week from the grocery store. We ate them after our frozen pizza or Little Caesar's and drank grape juice with them. Pardon me while I go take an antacid.

5. Grapes -- interestingly these game home on the same day as #4 and were devoured in the same afternoon.

6. M&Ms or Three Musketeers -- my great-great aunt and uncle provided one or the other of these every time we visited their house. Three Musketeers still make me think of Auntie and Uncle Horace.

7. homemade shortbread cookies -- my mom didn't bake cookies often, but usually around Thanksgiving we'd get a couple batches of these. She had cookie cutters shaped like pilgrims -- a man and a woman we dubbed Horace and Eudalia.

8. Kraft Garlic Cheese Roll with Vienna Sausages and Keebler Clubhouse crackers -- this was actually more of a lunch thing with my maternal grandfather. The salt and preservatives alone should keep me alive for at least 100 years. Did I mention we drank Kick along with this smorgasbord? 

9. popcorn -- my great-grandmother would walk us down to the convenience store and get us popcorn they popped in the store and an RC Cola.

10. homemade graham cracker pie crust -- yes, you read that correctly. My mother would mix up crushed graham crackers, sugar, and melted butter in a bowl, hand me a spoon, and that was my after school snack. Now as a kid I was not complaining, but as a parent I think, "What was she thinking!?!?!"

So there you go. Ten snacks I remember from my childhood. Is it any wonder I've turned into a bit of a Nazi when it comes to processed foods?

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Made by You Monday -- Teddy Bear Snack Mix

Teddy Bear Snack Mix

2 cups Honey Nut Cheerios

2 cups Teddy Grahams

1 cup honey roasted peanuts

1 cup M&Ms

1/2 cup raisins

Mix all together. Store in airtight containers. 

It won't last long enough to get stale, though!

This is my variation from the original 

recipe found in 

Betty Crocker's Best Christmas Cookbook

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