Good morning lovely readers!  I have a recipe for healthy homemade granola bars to share today!

This week I thought it would be nice to have a little healthier snack bar around the house to nibble on.  Many of the bars available at the grocery store today are filled with ingredients that quite frankly are difficult to pronounce, much less know what they truly are!

I think you need a degree in chemistry, or do a lot of independent research, to truly understand some of the ingredients in our food.  That is sad, and a bit scary!

I have a recipe for soft granola bars that was given to me by my sister.  I haven’t made it for years, but it came to mind today so I made it and I’m sharing it with you!

Ingredients for granola bars:

• 1 cup soft brown sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil   *(I substituted with coconut oil)
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups oats
• 1 ½ cups flour   *(I mixed it half wheat flour and half white flour)
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup chopped nuts
• 1 ½ tsp cinnamon
• 1 ½ tsp ground cloves (optional)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt

Honey glaze ingredients:

• ¼ cup honey
• 2 tbsp margarine   *(I substituted with butter)

Putting it all together:

1.  Mix sugar, eggs and oil together with a spoon until smooth.

2.  Add the remaining ingredients and stir together well.

3.  Spread in a 15 ½ x 10 ½ x 1 inch pan.

4.  Bake at 350 degrees for 17-22 minutes (until center is set, but not firm).

5.  Cook for 15 minutes.

6.  Drizzle with honey glaze.

7.  Cool completely.

8.  Cut into bars.

9.  Store in an airtight container.

Honey Glaze instructions:

Heat ¼ cup honey and 2 tblsp margarine over medium heat stirring constantly until mixture is heated through.

I made some changes with the recipe; some to make it healthier and some just personal taste preference:

• I used coconut oil instead of vegetable oil.
• I used ¾ cup wheat flour and ¾ cup white four
• I used butter instead of margarine in my drizzle
• I left out the raisins, just because I don’t like them!  Another dry fruit could be added here.
• I didn’t use the ground cloves.  Looking for a healthier alternative to the grocery store granola bar? Try this soft, yummy granola bar recipe! #healthyeating #snacktime Click To Tweet

Even with my variations in the recipe the bars turned out very good.  I’m admitting to everyone that I sometimes indulge by eating mine with a little bit of butter spread on top.  Not that I need those extra calories, but it sure is good!

I hope you enjoy these and that it will be a recipe your kids will like as well!

[pdf-embedder url=”http://aginglikeafinewine.com/wp-content/uploads/securepdfs/2016/04/Soft-Easy-Granola-Bars.pdf”]

(Hover over the bottom of the above recipe and the option to download it will be available!)

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