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:
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
These look awesome! And sweet photography…the shoe lace dealio is pretty. 🙂
These are going on my weekly foodie favorites! I’ve been looking for granola recipes.. granola bars are even better.
As for my favorite bars..I like the fiber one chocolate chip bars and there are these new Special K chocolate and pretzel bars that are the perfect salty and sweet. Yum.
I like Nature Valley granola bars, especially the PB, the vanilla, the cinnamon, and the new chocolate chunk versions. 🙂