Chewy Granola Bars

Summertime, and the livin's easy...but feeding the kids is not. There's nothing I love better than a blank day on the calendar, so we can sleep in, lounge around, do something if we feel like it, or just do nothing at all. The only bad part of days like this is that everyone's on their own schedule as far as eating. Max generally wakes up around 8, Sean about 10ish, and Elise usually wakes up and reads in bed until around noon.

This means that mealtimes are completely hosed. Luckily the big kids can make themselves a sandwich, or grab a yogurt or bowl of cereal, but the key is having stuff in the first place, and preferably stuff that will fulfill some sort of dietary requirement besides sodium.

Sean is a runner, and goes through a box or two of chewy granola bars a week. They are expensive and full of preservatives to boot, so this is where I begin my healthy pantry-stocking. As usual, this recipe is the result of several recipes combined, tweaked to suit our taste.


Chewy Granola Bars
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 c. peanut butter
1/2 c. light corn syrup
1/2 c. honey
4 Tbsp. butter
4 Tbsp. canola oil
3 c. rolled oats
1 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup cooked quinoa
1/2 cup Rice Krispies cereal
1 c. chocolate chips
1 tsp. kosher salt

Grease 13 x 9 inch pan. In large bowl, combine all ingredients until mixed well. Press mixture into pan as hard as you can. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes; press down again. Bake 10 minutes more or until starting to brown. Take out of the oven and press down one more time. Cool completely and cut into bars.


Janet's notes: The key to preventing a crumbly bar is, as you may have noticed, pressing it down as hard as you can, as often as you can. These bars are infinitely variable; my first version had raw pumpkin seeds but the kids hated it, and surprisingly, even my argument that they were full of zinc didn't sway them.