Honey Coconut Granola

I found a recipe online for granola and then made a bunch of modifications. It turned out AWESOME. Stephen and I both love it. The measurements here are sort of approximate since I was making it up a bit as I went along. Make your own adjustments if you like it sweeter or with more nuts, or whatever. This recipe is not very sweet, but just sweet enough for our taste.

Honey Coconut Granola

5 C oats
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup oil
1-2 tsp cinnamon

1-2 tsp vanilla
1 C shredded coconut
1/2 C slivered (or chopped) almonds and/or pecans

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Mix honey, oil, cinnamon and vanilla together. Mix in the rest of the ingredients. Spread onto two cookie sheets. Bake in oven for 15 minutes. Take out and stir, then put back in for 5 or so more minutes. Cook to desired crunchiness.

Jo-Ann's Power Bars Recipe - Allrecipes.com

Since we don't have a piano in our apartment, Stephen leaves early in the morning to go practice for a few hours. So I keep looking for healthy, filling recipes of easy-to-grab and go foods he can take with him for his breakfast. I've tried three different energy bars. The first I already posted on here. The second was a disaster so I'm not posting it. This is the third one I've tried and I really like it. It's a whole lot cheaper to make than the first recipe I posted. Also, I think it's a good base recipe -- easy to switch it up with different fruits/nuts/seeds for variety. In several of the reviews of this recipe, people said they added more applesauce, about 3/4 cup, to make it more moist, so I did that too. You probably could get away with not adding any oil at all since you're adding more applesauce but I didn't think of that till afterwards. Also, I ommitted the brown sugar - we don't like power bars to be super sweet and the honey gives it enough sweetness. Finally, Stephen feels like he needs more protein, so I put a half cup of protein shake powder and only put 1/4 cup or so of whole wheat flour to even it out. Don't cook too long or they will be dry -- I only cooked them for 25 min.

Jo-Ann's Power Bars Recipe - Allrecipes.com:

1 cup quick-cooking rolled oats
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup wheat and barley nugget cereal (e.g. Grape-Nuts™)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 beaten egg
1/4 cup applesauce
1/4 cup honey
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup unsalted sunflower seeds
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 (7 ounce) bag chopped dried mixed fruit
Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Line a 9 inch square baking pan with aluminum foil. Spray the foil with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, stir together the oats, flour, cereal, and cinnamon. Add the egg, applesauce, honey, brown sugar, and oil. Mix well. Stir in the sunflower seeds, walnuts, and dried fruit. Spread mixture evenly in the prepared pan.
Bake 30 minutes, or until firm and lightly browned around the edges. Let cool. Use the foil to lift from the pan. Cut into bars or squares, and store in the refrigerator.

Almond Honey Power Bar

Finally I found some granola bars that really ARE good for you. Sweeteners are honey and raw sugar. And they are sooo good. Btw, I don't use the dried fruit listed. I use dried cranberries and blueberries instead of currants and raisins. If you cut this recipe into 8 bars, each bar is 244 calories.

Next time I make these I'm going to put in only half the sugar called for. They aren't super sweet or anything but we just want to see if we still like them with less sugar.

• 1 cup(s) old fashioned rolled oats
• 1/4 cup(s) slivered almonds
• 1/4 cup(s) sunflower seeds
• 1 tablespoon(s) flaxseeds, preferably golden
• 1 tablespoon(s) sesame seeds
• 1 cup(s) unsweetened whole-grain puffed cereal (see Tips & Techniques)
• 1/3 cup(s) currants
• 1/3 cup(s) chopped dried apricots
• 1/3 cup(s) chopped golden raisins
• 1/4 cup(s) creamy almond butter (see Tips)
• 1/4 cup(s) turbinado sugar (see Tips)
• 1/4 cup(s) honey
• 1/2 teaspoon(s) vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon(s) salt

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Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat an 8-inch-square pan with cooking spray.
2. Spread oats, almonds, sunflower seeds, flaxseeds, and sesame seeds on a large, rimmed baking sheet. Bake until the oats are lightly toasted and the nuts are fragrant, shaking the pan halfway through, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl. Add cereal, currants, apricots, and raisins; toss to combine.
3. Combine almond butter, sugar, honey, vanilla, and salt in a small saucepan. Heat over medium-low, stirring frequently, until the mixture bubbles lightly, 2 to 5 minutes.
4. Immediately pour the almond butter mixture over the dry ingredients and mix with a spoon or spatula until no dry spots remain. Transfer to the prepared pan. Lightly coat your hands with cooking spray and press the mixture down firmly to make an even layer (wait until the mixture cools slightly if necessary). Refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes; cut into 8 bars.
   
   Carb Servings: 1 starch, 1 1/2 other carbohydrate, 2 fat. Carbohydrate Servings: 2 1/2. Nutrition Bonus: Magnesium (19% daily value).

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Tips & Techniques

Ingredient notes: For this recipe, we like unsweetened puffed multigrain cereal, such as Kashi's 7 Whole Grain Puffs. Almond butter can be found at natural-foods stores and large supermarkets, near the peanut butter. Turbinado sugar is steam-cleaned raw cane sugar. It's coarse-grained and light brown in color, with a slight molasses flavor. Find it in the natural-foods section of large supermarkets or at natural-foods stores.