Since I’ve been dwelling so much on how much sugar is in all the granola and protein bars I eat, Steven and I decided to make some of our own.
The base has whole wheat flour, wheat germ, oatmeal, eggs, honey, apple butter and vanilla. We split the base so I could add fruit to one half and Steven could add almonds and fruit to his. After you mix it all up, you put it into a pan and bake it in the oven.
I started by adding dried prunes and apricots to mine…
…then decided it need some red, so I threw in some cranberries.
Steven’s bars are the thick ones on the left, mine are on the right.
The “Fruity” bars have about 115 calories per bar.
The “Nutty” bars have about 180 calories** per bar.
The bars have a “healthy” taste to them. They are soft, but a bit chewy. I like that they aren’t very complicated, and were super easy to make. I think I am going to wrap them up in plastic wrap to eat throughout the week.
I keep feeling like I should apologize for dwelling so much on exercise, health, nutrition/food, and body image. But, writing about those things is kind of like therapy for me. It gets redundant, I know. Thanks for sticking around.
*I was going to call them “granola bars,” but they don’t actually have any granola in them. Oatmeal bar sounds like a dessert!
**These bars were higher in calories because we made them thicker and cut them larger.
Side Note: Did anyone else see Watchmen this weekend? Did anyone else wonder how, during the fight scene in the jail, Silk Spectre II could possibly keep her hair out of her face while fighting?
ah can you say movie magic! . . . personally I wondered how she kept it from catching on fire when she saved the families.
so Kitteh, are those oatmeal bars kinda like rectilinear cookies?
I just realized that I made the blogroll 🙂
Those “Not-Granola-Bars” look really yummy!!! I’m kind of a sucker for anything in bar form, though, so this seems like a great idea to me! Waytago. 🙂
Silk Specter had been making granola bars before she went off to spring Rorschach, so all she had to do was run her unwashed hands through her hair to get it to stick back out of the way. Honey FTW!
DeAnne – Good point! I didn’t even think about the fire. Her hair would totally be gone. Ridiculous! Her character was fun though. Fun outfit, fun hair. I get why they did it that way.
Sarah – Thanks! I am happy to hear I am not the only one who loves bars 🙂 Especially the cousin of the healthy bar – dessert bar!
Dave2 – Ha! That’s a good idea. I didn’t know honey would keep hair out of the face. I’ll have to try that 😛
Where did you find the recipe? They look yummy!!!!
okay, you and “Joy the Baker” have inspired me to make my own baked oatmeal thingies with dried fruit and nuts. mine are likely to be cookies though; but healthy none the less!
Those look really good. I have been trying to stay away from processed snacks as well…sometimes it is hard.
It’s your blog, no need to apologize.
Also, cool fruit bars. Never occurred to me to make ’em at home.
The fruitbars look yummy and I’m not even a cranberry/prune fan…
It was the fire scene that made me wonder how she even had hair any more!
It doesn’t seem like long hair would be good to have when fighting people either…
Those do look tasty! I am thinking about trying them with all-natural peanut butter subbed in for the honey and a little extra boost of soy protein to cut the sugar a bit more and up the protein level (I imagine the honey is serving as a binding agent in addition to the egg, which is why I’m thinking peanut butter might be a good sub-in). I’ll let you know how they turn out when I get a chance to experiment! 🙂
That does look good… love all the dried fruit
Denise – We looked at a few recipes online and compiled our own. Do you want it? it’s super simple!
DeAnne – Are you going to share them with us?! (on your blog, not in person 😉 )
Hotch Potchery – It’s SO hard! They’re everywhere! Even cereal has so much stuff in it. Wah. 😉
claire – Thanks 🙂 I didn’t think of it either, until I saw some fellow running bloggers posting about it!
Gary LaPointe – Definitely not! That whole scene made me think of the movie The Incredibles, when they talk about how bad it is to have a cap on your costume. Have you seen that? Ha ha ha.
diane – Ooo! I hope you try some! There are a few recipes on Food Network that have peanut butter in them! And I think those didn’t have honey. Some even use maple syrup!!!
Nat – Isn’t dried fruit great! Trader Joe’s has a lot of different dried fruits. I think I am going to get some dried strawberries to try!
I’ve gotta say, the nutty bars look GREAT!!!
Could I get that recipe from you? I have tried tons of similar recipes but mine have never turned out where they actually stay in bar form. It would be awesome to be able to send them to school with my kids for snack and not have to send it in a bowl with a spoon!
The bars look really good. I was thinking that I would attempt to make my own as well, I just didn’t have any clue how to do it.
They look so good!
I try to cook each day because once I notice how much salt and crap is in packaged food I do not want to eat that anymore.
My hubby and I had this discussion recently so I have to share what we found with you. Granola is not an ingredient – it is the actual result made by combining oats, nuts, dried fruit and sometimes crisped rice or chocolate chips. We figured this out when hubby thought he would make his own but couldn’t find “granola” to use anywhere. LOL. Anyway, here is more info. And all that is important is that it is good for you and tastes good! 🙂
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granola
Nicole – Thanks! I wonder if next time, he’ll add even more nuts! 🙂
tori – I’ll send it to you tonight after fencing, and post it here as well. You may want to add some more sweetener for the kids – these are really simple. I like them like that, but I doubt everyone else does! 🙂
Tony – It’s super simple! I’ll send you the recipe tonight 🙂
Christina – Ah! The dreaded salt! I forgot that! You know, I picked up a package of Rold Golds (is that the pretzel brand?) and two servings (which was the size of the bag) had 50% of your salt intake for the day! HOLY CRAP! I split that bag into two servings like it said 😉
teeni – Thanks for clarifying that! I was actually starting to wonder what granola was! Then I saw another blog talking about making granola out of oats, and I felt like a big dummy!
I bought a big ol box of Fiber One and then read the nutrion labe. While it is loaded in fiber it also is loaded with sugars. I was bummed about that. I’ll have to see about making my own.
Gina (Mannyed) – Isn’t that totally depressing? It’s not so bad if you eat them once or twice a week, but Steven and I eat about 2-3 a day, each!
Here’s the recipe we made. We cooked Steven’s in a glass pan loaf and mine in a glass 9×9 dish. That is why mine are thin and his are thick. Both turned out soft and chewy.
Mix:
2 cups oats
1/4 cup wheat flour
1/2 cup wheat germ
Add:
1/4 – 2/3 cup honey
2 large eggs
1 Teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup apple butter
Mix well. Add your choice of flavors – I added 1/2 cup prunes, 1/2 cup apricots, and 1/3 cup cranberries. Steven added 1/2 cup prunes, 1/4 cup apricots and 1/4 cup sliced almonds, as well as 1/8 teaspoon of salt.
You mix it up well then smash it down into the pan and even it out. You don’t need to butter the pan.
Bake at 350° for 20 mins. Let cool for a bit then cut and remove.
Experiment with them. Our taste very healthy, but good. If you like sweetener, you may want to add sugar or something.
Those sound yummy!!! I am going to try them but withough the fruits (wish I was a fan of fruit)…..I might try apples 🙂
Felicia – Apples would be good! I want to try strawberries this weekend! Or just cinnamon and raisins. yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmy
Update: We’ve been making this recipe every weekend since I posted this and discovered a few things:
1. You can use applesauce instead of apple butter and it tastes the same, for half the cost! Just look for applesauce without added HFCS and other crap.
2. Instead of fruit, I’ve been adding 1.5 teaspoons of cinnamon and 1/4-1/3 c. of raisins (you can really just add them “to your taste”). YUMMY!
3. If you spray your pan down with braking spray, these puppies will come right out! I’ve been making mine super thick, and I’ll admit, a bit chewy…okay DOUGHY, and they are so tastilicious! I was using a glass pan but I have been using one of those metal bread loaf pans now.
Steven has been experimenting with this recipe since we started. He has tried it at leas 5 different ways now!