May 23: Chewy Chocolate Granola Bars

I like granola bars.  I get hungry often, and if I don't eat between meals, I feel sick.  Granola bars are an easy snack to tide me over between meals. But it is hard to find a store-bought granola bar that fits with the real food rules we are trying to follow.  They all have lots of additives and sugars and even the so called "healthy" ones aren't really all that healthy.

So I decided to make my own!  I started with this recipe, and then made a bunch of changes and ended up with the recipe below.  I think they taste a lot more like a candy bar than a granola bar...definitely a treat, but at least they are a treat made with healthy ingredients.  These bars are not a low calorie treat, so you don't want to go and eat the whole pan in one sitting.  They are very filling and just a small piece is satisfying. 

Chewy Chocolate Granola Bars

1 cup peanut butter
2/3 cup honey
1/2 cup coconut oil
2 cups oats
1 cup puffed brown rice
1/3 cup ground flax seed
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/3 cup unsweetened coconut flakes (I left this out today and they were still good, but I am a fan of coconut!)
1/2 cup chocolate chips (the healthy choice here is 70% Cacao chocolate chips, but I cheated and used semi-sweet)

Melt the peanut butter, honey and coconut oil over medium heat.  Add in the rest of the ingredients and stir well.  Spread in a 9x13 pan and refrigerate for a couple of hours or until hardened. Cut into bars and enjoy!  (I got about 18 bars out of this recipe).

It is best to keep the bars stored in the refrigerator.  Otherwise, they will become a chewy, gooey (but still delicious!) mess.