Or not... I'm not much of a cook even on a good day. For example, my prime goal in making dinner is how fast, how easy and (if there's time) how healthy can I make it? I've always been better at baking, but the really fun baking has never been known to be exactly healthy. I'm also a terrible breakfast eater. Flood my system at 6 AM with coffee, keep a steady supply coming and I'm usually good until about ten. Not exactly healthy either... So I had to come up with something tasty, portable, easy to make and passably healthy.
Chef Lyzard to the rescue!
(At this moment I am having some serious de ja vu... I may have already posted this recipe previously. If so please bear with my sh%#ty memory.)
Chewy Granola Bars v 1.0
Preheat oven to 350.
Lightly grease or spray 8-9" square baking dish (or approx. equivalent.)
In a medium bowl mix the following:
1 cup Quick Oats
1/2 cup Flax Seed Meal
1 cup Chopped Mixed Salted Nuts**
2/3 cup Chopped Dried Fruit (e.g. dates, craisins, apricots, etc.)
1/3 cup Shredded Sweetened Coconut
3/4 tsp Cinnamon
In a microwave-safe measuring cup heat the following ingredients until the butter is melted & the rice syrup becomes easier to pour:
1/3 cup Brown Rice Syrup
2 Tb Butter
Pour heated syrup & butter over dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Using a sheet of waxed paper/parchment press the granola mixture firmly into the greased pan.
Bake for 25-30 minutes. Cut granola into bars while still warm.
**I like to chop the nuts very fine. One of those slappy-choppers works quite well. It does not work for the dried fruit however. Let me save you the trouble right now.
~~~
I actually ate these breakfast bars for months and months trying different iterations. If you add a tiny sprinkle of nutmeg and cloves to the mix and use raisins as the dried fruit it tastes almost like an oatmeal cookie. My favorite dried fruit was dates because they were incredibly sweet, but dried blueberries are pretty amazing too. Of course you could substitute the dried fruit for chocolate chips too, but I think it kind of defeats the purpose of being kind of healthy!
I eventually got totally burned on them and had to take an extended break, but just the other day I decided it was time to try a version 2.0. Surprisingly I think this second version is quite nice as well. No nuts this time- they do tend to get pretty dense in a granola bar, but plenty of cereal and peanut butter. Got to love peanut butter!
These bars came out very thick using a 8" x 8" pan, but because they're mostly airy cereal I figured it wouldn't be too bad.
Chewy Granola Bars v 2.0
Preheat oven to 350.
Lightly grease or spray 8-9" square baking dish (or approx. equivalent.)
In a medium bowl mix the following:
1 cup Quick Oats
1/2 cup Flax Seed Meal
2 cup Multi-Grain "O" Shaped Oat Cereal (you know what I mean!)
1/2 cup Shredded Sweetened Coconut
3/4 tsp Cinnamon
In a microwave-safe measuring cup heat the following ingredients until the peanut butter is is somewhat melted & the rice syrup becomes easier to pour:
1/4 cup Brown Rice Syrup
1/2 cup Peanut Butter
Pour heated syrup & peanut butter over dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Using a sheet of waxed paper/parchment press the granola mixture firmly into the greased pan.
Bake for 20 minutes.
Enjoy!
-Lyzard
