DIY granola bars

I love granola bars. Granola has been a favorite snack of mine since I was a kid. When I found out that making these glorious snacks are not only healthier but EASY... I couldn't resist stocking my fridge on a regular basis. The great thing about granola bars is that you can put whatever you want in them and make them exactly how you want. Great right!?

Here is my simple recipe for homemade granola bars.

My ingredients are:

1 cups steel cut oats

1 cup sliced almonds

1 cup shredded coconut

1 cup sunflower seeds

1 cup chopped cashews

2 tbsp flax seed meal

peanut butter

honey

blueberries

I use a 9x9x2 inch baking pan but if you double the recipe you can use a bigger pan.

Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a bowl.

Flax seed meal is basically two tablespoons of crushed flax seeds combined with two tablespoons of water. You let it sit for about five minutes and it becomes gelatinous. It's a great binding agent that you can use in vegan baking to substitute eggs.

Put the flax meal, two tablespoons of honey and blueberries to the dry ingredients. Put in as much or as little blueberries as you want.

Then add two tablespoons of peanut butter.

To help bind the bars even more I add some milk with whole wheat flour. I don't really measure this, it's really just however much will make the mixture sticky.

Stir everything together.

Put the mixture in the sprayed baking pan.

To help pack the granola I put aluminum foil (you can also use parchment paper) on top and press down with another pan. If you don't have another pan with the same dimensions you can use anything flat to press down and compact the mixture.

Put the pan in a 350 degree oven and let it cook for about 15 minutes or until the edges of the mixture turn a golden brown. Once the granola bakes let it cool down and put it in the fridge for about an hour to bind the granola even more.

Cut out the bars. If you have a cookie cutter you can cut out whatever shape you want. 

Voila! You're very own granola bars!