Granola Bars

[Sparkly]

These aren't necessarily health food, but maybe they're a little better for you than oatmeal cookies (maybe?)... In any case, they're better than store-bought, and you can customize them any way you want, with your favorite fruits, nuts, chips, etc. (They're also very quick and easy to make.)

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/easy-granola-bars/

Ingredients
3 cups quick-cooking oats
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup flaked coconut
1 cup sliced almonds
1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup sweetened dried cranberries

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the oats, sweetened condensed milk, butter, coconut, almonds, chocolate chips and cranberries with your hands until well blended. Press flat into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, depending on how crunchy you want them. Lightly browned just around the edges will give you moist, chewy bars. Let cool for 5 minutes, cut into squares then let cool completely before serving.

I leave out the coconut because Stinky hates it; I use dried cherries and blueberries; I cut the amount of chocolate chips in half (the whole cup was just too sweet) and use partly white chocolate chips (the person who gave me the recipe uses all white chocolate and dried blueberries, no coconut); and I add some whole almonds (and walnuts, etc.).

If you want them thinner and crunchier, use a cookie sheet instead of a pan and spread the stuff out more.

I can also say for a fact that if you forget to add the butter and you've already put the stuff in the pan, you can remove the stuff, put it back in the bowl, add the butter, and put it back in the pan; however, I'd advise that you re-butter the pan or they'll stick, even in a non-stick pan... I won't say how I know this, but trust me.

[Whisp]

1. I made some oatmeal cookies lately that turned out more like granola bars.

the recipe was on the quick oats bag.

I followed the basics but added nuts, currants and raisins (so I cut down on the sugar asked), pumpkin seeds, found some flax seed around too, bit of peanut butter. Just whatever I had around that made sense to throw in and they came out great! Oh, and some fibre cereal which I forget the name of - that crunchy 'healthy' kind of cold cereal.

[oneshooter]

4. But did you have any molasses in them.

Oatmeal Molasses cookies ROCK!!
At least according to my grand daughters and youngest son.

[Whisp]

5. you know thats one thing I hardly ever have around, Molasses.

and I love it and it stays forever.

*jots down on grocery list.

thanks for the reminder!

plus molasses is great to make your own 'brown sugar' - my sister does this.
she just pours a bunch of white in a bowl, adds a bit of molasses, mixes up till fully incorporated, adds more if wanted, etc.

[Luciferous]

2. Sounds good, I'll have to try these. Thanks for sharing :)

[blaze]

3. I forgot to reply to this

I made these...

Omitted the butter and swapped out the amount of chocolate (just used 1/2 C) and cranberries (upped to 1 C) and absolutely LOVED them!!

Thanks so much for posting this. I couldn't believe how easy they were to make. Can't wait to try different variations!

One of the reviewers at Allrecipes made it simple to remember: 3 cups oats, 3-4 cups whatever, one can sweetened condensed milk.

Thanks Sparkly!

[Ruby Reason]

6. This sounds yummy!

I'm definitely going to give it a try. But at our house, 3 to 5 oatmeal cookies is considered an acceptable dinner!