Granola Bars

Hi all!  Sorry I missed you yesterday.  Our weather was pretty nasty and I didn't think it was probably the best time to be plugged in to a wall.  Anyways, last week when I was at the store and found those go picnic boxes, I also found a bag of Enjoy Life Not Nuts.  It is like trail mix, but they use pumpkin and sunflower seeds, dried apples and cranberries, and some other stuff.  My daughter is crazy for granola bars so I figure it's time to make my own.  We buy the Enjoy Life sunbutter ones every week and she chooses it for snack almost every day.  I'm  OK with that, since she needs the calories, but they are $4.50 at our grocery store and you only get 6 bars.  With this recipe I spent about ten bucks on ingredients, but I got 20 bars out of it.  Hope you enjoy them.

This is what you will need

1/2 c. earth balance buttery spread

1/2 c. honey

2/3 c. brown sugar

3 c. quick cooking oats

1 c. rice crispies

1 bag enjoy life not nuts

1/2 tsp. vanilla

OK, now that you have all your ingredients, mix the oats, rice crispies, and not nuts into a bowl and set them aside.  In a medium sauce pan, melt the earth balance and add in the honey and brown sugar.  Once the mixture starts to simmer, turn it down to medium heat and let it boil for 2 minutes.  Turn off the burner, mix in the vanilla, and then pour it into the bowl of dry ingredients.  Mix until everything is covered and then drop it out onto a lightly greased cookie sheet.  I used the smallest sheet I had. 

Wet you hands to keep the granola from sticking and flatten the mixture into the sheet.  Take your time and make sure it is really smooshed together. You will see in my picture that I didn't fill up the entire cookie sheet.  The important thing is that you make it as compact as possible, otherwise they may fall apart.  Leave them an hour or so, or until they harden up, and cut them into bars.  I found these to be very sweet, so next time I am going to cut the brown sugar down to 1/2 c. and see how it goes.