Granola Bars-- A couple recipes

In the last few weeks, I have made a couple different recipes for granola bars.  I made a recipe a few years ago via my friend Marissa, and they were very delicious.  Thinking about it now, I'm not sure why I haven't made that recipe again.

Anyway, this first recipe I made today.  It was definitely my favorite of the two.  I'm looking forward to making these again with dried bing cherries from Trader Joes ,with chocolate chips, or maybe add some sesame seeds for a crunch.  So many different things I could add to these. Here's the recipe: (via Pinterest)

Granola Bars/Balls

1 cup Oatmeal

1/2 cup Peanut Butter

1/3 cup Honey

1 cup Coconut Flakes

4 TBSP Flax Seed

Mix all ingredients together.  Put mixture into fridge for 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes, form mixture into tablespoon sized balls or into an 8x8 pan to make granola bars.  Put back into the fridge for 30 minutes to harden.  Enjoy!

**Option to melt chocolate and drizzle on top... which I think would be a very delicious addition.

The website I found these on says they are only 93 calories each... so depending on how big you make your portions, I'd said they are 90-100 calories, with protein too!  (Not sure how much though..)  Very delicious.  Best part about these... it literally took a total of 15 minutes of my time with the mixing and forming them into shape.  I highly recommend!

The other recipe I made is from my favorite: Iowa Girl Eats!

This is another recipe that is very easy, though it takes a little more time.  What I like about this recipe is it takes almonds, pecans, sesame seeds, and many other uber healthy ingredients.  The only problem I had with this recipe was that I couldn't get the bars to really stick together.  It ended up more as granola, not as granola bars.  But the taste was very yummy!:

Chewy Cherry Almond Granola Bars

1 cup Whole Almonds

1 cup Pecan Halves

1 cup Oats

1 cup dried Bing Cherries

2 T Sesame Seeds

1/4 c + 2 T Honey

3 T Coconut Oil (I could not find this at Trader Joe's or Hyvee so I left it out...)

1/2 tsp Salt

1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract

1/4 tsp Almond Extract

Dash of Cinnamon

Add 1/2 cup of almonds, pecans, and oats to food processor.  Process until find, pour into large bowl.  **Make sure to only do 1/2 cup of each... this is where I made a mistake, which might have played part in the fact that my bars did not stick together very well.** Roughly chop remaining pecans and almonds, add to bowl.  Add remaining oats, cherries, sesame seeds... mix well and set aside.

Combine honey, coconut oil, salt, extracts, and cinnamon.  In a small saucepan over medium heat... stir until mixture melts and foams for 15 seconds.  Pour over nut mixture and mix.  (Again, this recipe is more time consuming that the one above!)

Pour mixture into 8x8 pan, press down firmly with hands or the bottom of a glass.  Refrigerate for up to 4 hours (Again... more time!)

Cut with a sharp knife.  I wrapped each bar in saran wrap to I could grab it and take it to work.

Both of these recipes are very good! If you're in a time crunch, make the first.  If you have more time, make the second.  I need to make the Iowa Girl Eats recipe again and find a way to make it all stick together a little better.  I think I might have had too many dry ingredients or something... I'm not really sure??  I don't expect myself to be a perfect cook the first time :)  

Hope you enjoy these... they are both quite delicious and great mid-morning snacks at work.