Homemade Granola Bars

I love the convenience of grabbing a granola bar since I am on the road a lot. I have been eating Luna bars which are SOOOO yummy but cost almost a dollar a bar. Since I eat about 3 a day, that gets expensive. 

I found this granola bar recipe on Pinterest and stole it.

The cost is around $5 for the batch depending on what kind of nuts you add. I cut mine into 10 bars so the cost is about 50 cents a bar.

1 bar is about 110 calories, 15 g. of carbs (7 g sugar), 5 g fat, 3 g of protein.

Here is the recipe:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together 3/4 cup of applesauce (I used cinnamon flavored - yum!) and 1 ripe banana.

Mash together.

On a baking sheet, toast 28 crushed almonds and 6 tablespoons of coconut (I skipped this step and just added them to the mix).

Add the remaining ingredients:

1/2 cup dried fruit (I added dried cranberries)
1 cup uncooked oats
8 tablespoons of flax seed

Mix all ingredients together. Moisten your fingers well and start packing the mixture into a baking pan (I lined mine with foil so it wouldn't stick). The mixture should be the thickness of a granola bar. I used a 9" x 12" pan since I didn't have a square pan. The mixture would fit perfectly in a 9" x 9" pan. 

Bake for about 20 minutes or until the top is golden brown on top. Then allow to cool and cut into bars.

These will last for about 1 week in a tupperware container in the fridge.

I made my husband his own batch using honey and peanut butter instead of the banana & applesauce and he loved them. They didn't stick as well but he added the broken crumbles into pudding.