Imagine yourself eating your favorite granola…
Now imagine eating your favorite granola… in the form of a granola bar! Nature Valley Granola Bars… Do you know the ones I’m talking about?
Those crunchy bars in the green wrappers? My friend Sarah calls them “horse food” because they’re made up of oats and sugar—things that horses like to eat. But the following granola bar recipe is much too good to share with horses. Sorry, horses.
Soccer Fuel
When I was in high school (it seems like a lifetime ago!), I played on the varsity soccer team, and our daily practices fell right after school. So I got in the habit of grabbing a bar—often a Nature Valley granola bar—to munch in the locker room while dressing out.
I’d completely forgotten about my past with Nature Valley until a few days ago, when I tasted an attempt at what was supposed to be a chewy granola bar.
“Woah, these taste exactly like Nature Valley oats-n-honey bars,” my roommate proclaimed after trying a bite. “Except, maybe these are even better!” (She quickly proceeded to eat two whole bars.)
Nature Valley Granola Bars Recipe
Category: Healthy & Gluten-Free Recipes
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1/4 cup rice crispies (I used brown rice crispies)
- 3 tbsp oat flour (You can make your own by grinding oats in a food processor*.)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp coconut oil or veg oil
- 3 tbsp agave or other liquid sweetener
- 1 packet stevia (or 1 tbsp dry sweetener)
Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine dry ingredients, then mix in wet. Transfer to a 7×5 baking dish (lined with parchment paper), and press down. Squish HARD. Hard hard hard. Then cook for around 18 minutes. Wait at least 20 minutes before trying to cut into bars. *If making oat flour, measure the 3tbsp after grinding.
Other bars I’ve done:
Yummy! I substituted vital wheat gluten for the oat flour and only used the 3T of agave for sweetener. I crumpled a couple bars over some almond milk yogurt for breakfast 🙂
Hey Katie! GREAT RECIPE! I LOVEEEE NATURE VALLEY BARS. But they’re loaded in sugars if im not wrong…? read it from somewhere.
anyway, how many bars did you get out of this? i have a small family so i might be making too much then i wouldnt be able to finish it. :/
I have to stay this recipe is amazing! I love it some much. I used coconut flour in replace of the oat flour. It has such a great flavor. I also had problems cutting it into bars so I just broke it up into a bunch of big pieces. And my husband decided last night to eat some with frosting on top. Thank you so much for this recipe!
anything i could substitute rice krispies with? more oats? i don’t have any rice krispies at home
Sorry, I’m not sure.
Kat – if you don’t have crispy rice cereal, I bet any crispy breakfast cereal might work. If you have some kind of flakes just break them into rice sized bits. Or maybe sunflower seeds? GOOD luck. Am going shopping today and so I’m going to get crispy brown rice so I can try these. Thanks so much Katie!
Hi! I just made the bars but i had a little problem… The mix didn’t merge well and therefore when i took it out of the oven it wasn’t stiff nor crunchy, it was just the same way i put it in. Could this have happened because of insufficient oil?? Thanks a lot!
Did you use the amount of oil called for?
You are a genius. 😀
Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. I’ve been wanting a good recipe to replace those Oats n Honey bars that I love. I used unsweetened coconut instead of the puffed rice, and honey and a little liquid stevia to sweeten. You’re friend was right… These are BETTER than the Nature Valley kind!!! I’m still in shock 🙂
Hi Katie. I just found you on Pinterest! And I love your recipes!! I have a question about this one- I have never backed anything in wax paper- it seems like it would melt into the food?
Yeah, I don’t *think* you’re supposed to bake wax paper, right? I could be wrong. I used parchment paper with this recipe and they came off perfectly!
Hmmm… mine never melted. But I hadn’t thought about it. I love the suggestion to use parchment paper!
Once I baked with waxed paper by mistake and boy did I have a smoky house – I had to open all the windows and doors and it took a while to clear out! 🙂
I went online before to look up wax paper and it says you can use it in baked goods but it has to be covered completely otherwise it will smoke. So it cant be used for say cookies but the bottom of a cake you can. Hope that helps 🙂
Katie… your blog had me at “frosting shots” and now this? I’m excited to try these granola bars for my kids. I love the crunchy kind! Thank you for these!