Granola Bars

Having recently read Cooked, a great book by Michael Pollan, who argues that the single most significant thing we can do as a Western society to improve our health is to make our own meals and eat together, I have become more passionate than ever about nutrition and cooking.  With the ever-increasing tendency to eat out or eat easy (think frozen microwaved meals), coupled with increasing poor health, Pollan argues:  “The best way to recover the reality of food – to return it to its proper place in our lives – is to master the physical processes by which it has traditionally been made.”  I took many things away from Cooked, but the most important was: take the time, more often than not, to prepare meals with patience, practice, and presence.  We owe it to our loved ones and to our own bodies.

Does this mean I will never again rip open another bag of potato chips?  Of course I will; don’t be ridiculous.  I love potato chips. 

However, I have figured out a method to make your own beautiful granola bars.  It’s easy.  Depending on what you choose to put in them will determine how nutritious they are, but I guarantee they will be better for your body than nearly anything you can buy in a box, and in making them, your house will smell incredible and your people will love you even more than they already do.

This is not a recipe, but more of a guideline. 

To about 6 cups of grains: (real large flake oats, quinoa, a mix of porridge-type grain cereal), add a little melted butter and/or oil of your choice (I often use coconut) and stir until the grains are lightly coated.  Put them on a baking sheet and toast in a 350 oven for 15-20 minutes. It is also nice to add a handful of shredded coconut to the toasting process.

In the meantime, get your add-ins ready.  In this batch, mine are handfuls of dark chocolate chips, hemp seeds, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, some Smarties (my Dad would approve) and raisins. I made a different batch recently using hulled pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds, and chopped apricots. Use your beautiful imagination.

Next, make all the sticky stuff to make your mixture stay together.  You will need about 2 cups worth in total.  I used 1 cup of brown sugar, approximately ¼ cup each coconut oil, maple syrup, molasses, and a handful of marshmallows.  You could use any nut butter, but I did not because I want to safely send these in school lunches. I brought it just to a boil, took it off the heat and added a good glug of vanilla.

Take the oats from the oven, let cool.  Put them in a big bowl with a teaspoon of salt (I used sea salt), some cinnamon (if you are into that – we are), a heaping cup of rice krispie cereal and a good ½ cup of each ground flaxseed and wheat germ.  Again, you can improvise here with whatever grains you like.  

Pour the sticky stuff over your dry ingredients, mix, then add your add-ins.  Put a sheet of parchment on your baking sheet and grease it really well.  Press the mixture onto the sheet, making it as even on top as you can with the greased back of a spoon.   

Bake at 325 for 18 minutes.  Do not over bake.  Let them cool in the pan. I find the parchment paper is key to bar removal later on.

Peel off the parchment and cut into bars, or get your kid to do it since he/she should be able to use a knife.  I think Michael Pollan would approve.  Probably.

Wishing you the beauty of making something from scratch, 

hk