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:
Ohh I love Nature Valley bars! I like how crunchy they are and that Honey Oats flavor has always been my favorite… so obviously I need to make these now!! For the liquid sweetener do you think I could do Stevia drops?
I don’t think so… but I haven’t tried.
Ooh those Nature Valley granola bars saved me throughout college! Great idea – I have to give that recipe a try!
I just made these and used vanilla whey protein powder instead of the oat flour and they turned out delicious!
Oh wow, I’m so glad someone tried them with protein powder! Now if anyone asks, I’ll know to say they work! 🙂
I love you. Sorry, just had to say it. I have never been excited about healthy eating. I’ve been silent blog stalking for some time now and I could not keep quiet any longer. You are AMAZING! Thanks for all the lovely and happy making recipes.
This one really excites my mouth!
LOL! Thank you so so much, Danielle! 🙂
Great idea to add protien powder!! I have vanilla at home. Now, I’m new to coconut oil. Mine is SOLID. Assuming I’m supposed to melt it first before using here? thx!!
Yes 🙂
Oh I used to love those granola bars. I am so glad you’ve come up with an awesome, much healthier version!! Looks delicious!
For a snack, I adore vega vibrancy bars although I think I prefer the original instead of chocolate– I know I’m sorry but the chocolate version is less a snack than a dessert! My other fav, which is a meal replacement is the vegan organic food bar: pricey, but it’s sooo worth it for the taste and for the nutrients (which is pretty dense [I have yet to try the chocolate kind]). BUT if I want a peanut butter and chocolate fix, I go for a pb and choco chip larabar which trumps ALL of the above.
Its great that these bars can be easily replicated at home! They’re usually so expensive so I don’t buy them often. Definitely will try!
I used to love those Nature Valley bars, but most aren’t vegan because of the honey. So glad to see a vegan version!
Can you fix your Larabar link? I’m a new follower and been trying to find that recipe for the past few days now.
I don’t even “do” health food, but all of your recipes are freakin’ amazing.
Nevermind, it just started working for me…
omg, you’re my favourite person right meow! I looove Nature Valley granola bars, but I stopped eating them because they don’t keep me full. I’m gonna try making these. And some of them will have chocolate chips, too!
Ok so… if I pressed these down into a sprayed, floured PIE dish instead of a baking sheet, do you think I could make a… granola bar pie crust? Maybe I could dress it up by adding coconut shreds to the recipe o_o
As for the question: I’ve never really been a “snack bar” person. I used to eat Kashi bars fairly regularly (convenience), and for a short while I was eating a lot of those BIG 100 protein bars (candy with perks). I do remember there being a cereal-centric restaurant in my college town called the Cereal Bowl, though. They offered smoothies also, and granola bars. I’d often get a mango/orange smoothie and a crunchy peanut butter Nature Valley granola bar and eat them together. It was pretty darn tasty.
thanks so much for this! i would love love to know how to make my favorite granola into a granola bar-preferably chewy. 🙂
Katie those look amazing! I remember being a kid and taking Nature’s Valley Granola Bars to track and field day, year after year (along with a bottle of bug juice!)
So Katie do you take challenges? If so there’s these cookies that I used to make all the time, that were packed full of nutrients (they’re called lactation cookies, but really there’s nothing weird about them) and they are so delicious. Problem is they’re packed FULL of sugar. Its an easy enough recipe to veganize, but when I tried to make them less sugary and more healthy (I replaced the butter with 1/2 and 1/2 chilled coconut oil and smart balance, and removed the white sugar replacing it with applesauce), i got balls instead of cookies. So are you up to the challenge? (They are the most amazing cookies btw, you’ll love them)
http://www.food.com/recipe/oatmeal-chocolate-chip-lactation-cookies-by-noel-trujillo-192346
LOL I’ll put it on my ever-growing list ;).
Amazing! I will definetly be trying these out 🙂
I always think of this whenever I see those bars now: http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lr3767Yrcb1qazvpdo1_500.png