While I’m lucky enough to work from home, I am out and about in meetings and I usually have a granola bar or sliced apples in my bag for a snack. Granola bars are not cheap and I realized I was spending between $4 –$5 each week for a box of 6 granola bars. So when I came upon this recipe for granola bars via Twitter and thought I’d give it a try.
For the first batch, I used the chocolate chips as called for, but couldn’t find peanut butter chips so those were left out. They were very good, but very sweet, so I cut the bars into small squares and ate them in the evening to curb my sweet tooth. When it came to making a second batch, it was after Ash Wednesday and since I have given up sugar for Lent, I needed to modify the recipe again.
So here we go; here’s your list of ingredients for the base of the granola bites:
Coconut oil 1/3 of a cup (I still had some left over from my Coconut Sugar scrub)
Peanut Butter 1/2 cup
Honey 1/3 cup
Old fashioned oats 1 1/2 cup (I found my bites to be a bit sticky, I’ll add another 1/4 cup oats in the next batch)
Since I’m not eating sugar, I had to come up with something else to put in the granola bites. Most people would automatically think of raisins (but I don’t like them). I had originally thought of some dried fruit, but I wasn’t happy with the selection at my grocery store. Truth is, you can add anything you want to these little bites. I decided to go with chopped dates and slivered almonds. I added 1/2 cup of almonds and 1/3 cup of chopped dates.
So here’s what you do, it’s super quick easy!
Melt your coconut oil, peanut butter and honey in a small pot over medium heat. Once they’re all melted, add in your oats, and your fruit.
***If you are using chocolate, your chocolate is going to melt if you add it now. If you want the chips to keep their shape, don’t add them yet. Once your oat/honey/oil/pb mixture is combined, you’ll have to let it cool for about 10 minutes, then add your chocolate chips.
I lined a small casserole dish with parchment paper and poured it in.
If you’re making bars, you would want to use a larger dish; the bites can be fat and square.
Put it into the fridge to set- mine set in about 30 minutes.
Once set, I just pulled the parchment paper out of my dish and set on my cutting board to cut the bites.
These guys are pretty delicious! Just two little bites are a great snack for me in between meals, which means they are much more cost effective than buying the bars. I also know exactly what went into these bites which is also a bonus. I got about 16 good size squares from this recipe. I keep them in a sealed container in the fridge, but they’d also be fine at room temperature.
Now, before I get a whack of comments, yes, I’m aware that peanut butter does have sugar in it. I had just bought a brand new jar prior to giving up sugar and I just couldn’t justify buying natural peanut butter which is double the price. On my peanut butter, sugar is the 6th ingredient out of 8, so while it’s in there, it could be worse.
You can do so much with this base- swap out the peanut butter for almond butter, add cranberries and walnuts, or if you like them, raisins.
What will you add to your granola bites?
Buon Appetite!
S
Before Christmas, one of the people I follow on Twitter posted a picture of an owl she had sewn as a Christmas gift. Immediately I declared myself a seamstress and decided to make a few for my friends’ little ones (which is why I couldn’t share before Christmas. As for why I couldn’t share until the end of March…I have no excuse).
