Copycat Nature Valley Granola Bars


Imagine yourself eating your favorite granola…

granola bars

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.

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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.)

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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.

View Nutrition Facts

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Other bars I’ve done:

homemade-luna-bars_thumb

Homemade Luna Bars

homemade-larabars_thumb

Homemade Larabars

Meet Katie

Chocolate Covered Katie is one of the top 25 food websites in America, and Katie has been featured on The Today Show, CNN, Fox, The Huffington Post, and ABC’s 5 O’clock News. Her favorite food is chocolate, and she believes in eating dessert every single day.

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224 Comments

  1. Katrina @ Warm Vanilla Sugar says:

    Great idea! Can’t wait to try this!

  2. Ashley @ Southern Purple Vegan says:

    I can’t wait to try this out.

  3. Averie @ Love Veggies and Yoga says:

    Pretty pictures! The cutting board, oats, green ribbon…looks great.

  4. natalie @ southern fit foodie says:

    Mmmm – I love granola bars! I used to like the Nature Valley crunchy ones when I was in college.

    My favorite bars are larabars and clif mojo bars (the mountain valley mix with chocolate chips!).

  5. Moni'sMeals says:

    Fantastic…you are just so clever! I love these and especially with a tall glass of almond milk.

    I love all your bars and I am usually always snacking on LARA Bars or TLC bars. 🙂

  6. ~Jessica~ says:

    I used to love those granola bars too. Now they taste so sweet!

    Vega Sport bars are my favourites, for sure. Luna bars come a close second.

    xxx

  7. Amber K says:

    My absolute favorite bars are the chocolate peanut butter Zing bars, so delicious, so gluten-free, SOOOOO expensive.

  8. Lily Fluffbottom says:

    These seriously look awesome. I almost picked up a box of granola bars at the store the other day, but more than half the calories came from fat, and they were loaded with sugar. Just couldn’t do it! I will have to try these out next week. It’ll be a great snack to take to school after work.

  9. Jenny@HealthyMOChick says:

    Yum Yum and more Yum…I love the oats n’ honey bars!

  10. Andrea says:

    I was scouring the internet for a granola bar recipe just yesterday and wasn’t satisfied with anything I found. I can’t wait to give this a try – it’s exactly what I was looking for!