I don’t know about y’all, but my favorite meal of the day has to be breakfast.  In fact, I will happily eat breakfast foods for lunch and dinner, too.  I’m not a big fan of  sweet foods  in the morning, but give me a fried egg perched on top of a slice of avocado and a potato latke and I’m a very happy girl.  Oh, with a dash of Cholula on top.  Yummy!  In fact, if you need a great recipe for a latke/fried egg combo, look no further than the Smitten Kitchen.  Delicious.

But, I’m not here today to talk about hot breakfast.  Because, lots of times, that just isn’t an option — for weekdays at least.  That is where these granola bars come in.

Dear Jon spoke about these bars on facebook recently.  Saying something about how I had made them from base elements.  He is so funny.

The thing about these granola bars, though, is, like many things made at home vs. purchased, they taste so very good.  They can be made with whatever nuts and dried fruits that you like.  And, they will keep your stomach from rumbling and making your son say, aghast, “That was your stomach?  I thought it was the dishwasher!”

And, that is always a good thing.

 

Granola Bars

3 T. coconut oil or butter

2/3 cup honey

1 t. cinnamon

pinch salt

2 cups old fashioned rolled oats

1 cup dried coconut (the natural, unsweetened variety)

1 cup chopped nuts of your choosing (pecans, almonds)

3 cups of dried fruit (Usually I do a golden raisin, dried cranberry combo)

1/4 cup sugar, optional depending on other ingredients and your own sugar preference

1/4 cup ground flax seed

1/4 cup oat bran or wheat germ

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Combine the oats, coconut, and chopped nuts.  Put them on a very large jellyroll pan and toast until they are fragrant and light golden brown.  Meanwhile, in a 2 cup glass measuring cup, heat the coconut oil or butter, honey, cinnamon and salt in the microwave.  The length of time in the microwave will vary — I usually do about 45 seconds or so.  Watch it while it heats — the honey can bubble over if heated for too long.  Now it is time to prepare your pan for the bars.  I usually use an 8 x 11 glass pyrex dish.  You can also do 9 X 9 if that’s all you have.  Butter the dish and line it with parchment paper.  Leave the edges of the paper poking out above the sides of the pan so that you can use the paper to lift the bars out when they are done.  By now, the oats should be toasty.  So, get them out of the oven and reduce the temperature to 300.  Combine the oats/coconut/nuts with all the other ingredients in a large bowl.  Stir until well mixed and then press into the prepared pan.  Bake at 300 until done to your liking.  This is a range, of course, but I’d say at least 25 minutes.  I bake mine until they are a golden brown.

Now, this is the hard part; you have to wait at least 3 hours to cut them.

 

That’s it!

 

Happy Friday, y’all!!