When most of the food you eat is made from scratch, sometimes it’s hard to come up with snacks to pack along on hikes, road trips, or other outdoor activities. These homemade granola bars are kid-friendly and adapt to big or small adventures!
Do you ever find yourself trying to head out on some last-minute trip and searching through your cabinets and refrigerator thinking, “The world is so full of a number of snacks, I’m sure we should have some here somewhere…”
Maybe I’m the only one who finds herself in this predicament rather frequently. I’ve packed along some interesting comestibles for day hikes and car trips simply because we didn’t have any “snack food.”
I do realize that you can buy packs of trail mix, nuts, and all kinds of bars in just about any store that sells food. And I do buy dried fruits and nuts for trail mix. But I like to make my own food for several reasons, so I don’t usually stock packaged snacks.
So began my search for healthy snack foods that are simple and easy to make at home, don’t cost much, and are full of real ingredients. Ideally, they would also be portable and not very messy.
Versatile Granola Bars
Granola bars rank high for portability and are a compact energy source, which is great for activities where you don’t have a ton of extra space for food.
Homemade granola bars are great for families with allergies or food intolerances, because you can adjust recipes to fit your needs. You can also choose which add-ins like dried fruits, nuts, or chocolate to include based on your family’s preferences.
This has been my go-to granola bar recipe for over a year now. They’re simple to mix up and quick to bake, and many of the ingredients can be substituted if you wish. So if you get tired of my favorite flavor combination (dark chocolate, almonds, and cranberries), there are plenty of others to try instead!
I can make these start to finish in less than an hour, even with a toddler helping me! That is definitely an important factor for me when I’m choosing between recipes. Time is the number one reason I get intimidated by recipes for crackers or other snack foods.
Not only are these quick, they’re also just about as easy as it gets. Stir everything together, spread it in a pan, and pop it in the oven to bake. No rolling out fragile dough or cutting into shapes, no constant checking of the oven. They don’t even make a mess of your counter, because they cool in the pan!
The original recipe was a coconut granola bar recipe from Taste of Home, but I’ve played around with the recipe quite a bit. My biggest challenge with granola bar recipes is always making them stick together and not crumble too easily- but still be more of a granola bar than a cookie bar.
Maybe my problem is trying to add too many additions to the dough. But who wants to leave out the chocolate? These bars can be a bit crumbly, so I’m still searching for the perfect granola bar recipe. I would not give one to a toddler in a car seat!
Crumbs aside, these bars have great flavor and texture, and a lot of protein: 7 grams per bar! That’s enough to keep my boys happy. These homemade granola bars don’t last very long in our house! Hence the recurring dilemma of absent snack foods…
Method
In a large mixing bowl, stir together the peanut butter, brown sugar, honey, melted coconut oil, and vanilla. Whisk the eggs lightly and add them to the peanut butter mixture.
Combine the oats, flour, salt, and baking powder, and add to the peanut butter mixture. By the way, you can use oat flour or ground oats to make these gluten free.
Mix in the nuts, flaked coconut, dried cranberries, and chocolate chips. The mixture will be stiff. I use almonds, cranberries, and dark chocolate chips in my bars, but you don’t have to stick with these suggestions.
Try peanuts, cashews, or pecans in place of the almonds. Sub raisins, dried cherries, or dried blueberries for the cranberries. And switch dark chocolate chips to milk or white chocolate pieces or M&Ms. Or leave them out entirely, if you’re trying to limit sugar.
The same thing goes for the coconut. You can leave it out if coconut isn’t your favorite flavor or texture. Add a little wheat germ or flax seeds instead (but decrease the amount, since these are denser than coconut).
You may be thinking that coconut and peanut butter don’t sound like a great combination. I was a little skeptical about using peanut butter myself, at first. However, the peanut butter is not a dominant flavor in these bars. Its role is to help everything stick together.
Pat the mixture into a buttered 13×9″ pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes, until the edges start to brown and the center is set.
Cool the granola bars in the pan and slice into bars with a sharp knife. I usually make 18 bars so they’re big enough to satisfy my husband, but if you are making these mostly for smaller appetites, feel free to cut them as small as you wish.
When the bars have cooled, remove them from the pan and wrap individually in plastic wrap. They will keep at room temperature for at least 2 weeks, and in the freezer (individually wrapped and placed in a freezer bag) for several months.
Now you’re ready for any adventure! Pack a few of these bars along, and you’ll have a snack that you can feel good about feeding to your family!
Do you have any favorite take-along snacks? I would love to hear about them! Don’t forget to sign up for my email newsletter for more recipes and homely tips!
Adventure-Ready Granola Bars
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup peanut butter
- 1/2 cup brown sugar packed
- 1/2 cup coconut oil melted
- 1/2 cup honey
- 2 eggs lightly beaten
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups rolled oats
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2/3 cup flaked coconut
- 2/3 cup sliced almonds
- 2/3 cup dried cranberries
- 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine peanut butter, brown sugar, honey, coconut oil, and vanilla extract. Beat eggs lightly and add to peanut butter mixture.
- Combine the oats, flour, baking powder, and salt; add to peanut butter mixture.
- Mix in coconut, almonds, cranberries, and chocolate chips. The mixture will be stiff.
- Pat into a buttered 13×9" pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until edges start to brown and center is set.
- Cool in pan. Cut into bars. When cooled, remove from pan and wrap bars individually.
Rosalie says
These sound good! I’ll have to give them a try with another kind of nut butter. Do you use the homogenized peanut butter, or the kind that needs to be stirred?
kimberly says
Rose, I have made these bars with homogenized peanut butter as well as “natural” peanut butter and gotten similar results. They were both creamy peanut butters, since I don’t usually buy crunchy. I don’t see why almond or cashew butter wouldn’t work just as well. Let me know how they turn out for you!