We had so much fun filming the The Ohana Adventure to make these granola bars. Rachel has 6 kids and so do I. That means there were 12 kids in my kitchen. I even included the baby twins in this segment.
If you notice some crying in the background, it was from Jane who wasn’t as excited to to share her kitchen with friends. She wanted to do everything and didn’t want to take turns. Being a 5 year old is hard work.
I love knowing exactly what is going into my kids body. These granola bars are the perfect snack for them to take to school or for an afternoon snack. They are super easy for the kids to make too so everyone loves them even more.
I did change a few things from the video, like adding peanut butter. The granola bars were just a little too crumbly and I didn’t appreciate the kids tracking granola bars all over the house. So I added the ever amazing and delicious peanut butter and tried a few different mix-ins and they are perfect.
The kids ask for a granola bar every day after school now and I love saying yes without feeling guilty. I hate the store bought ones that are full of high fructose corn syrup and preservatives.
I’m not always the healthy mom but I sure feel better when they are eating something a little more healthy. Sure it has some sugar and chocolate but it also has some good stuff. It’ll give them just enough energy to make it through to the next meal. You could switch out the chocolate for raisins too if you want.
To get started, put all the dry ingredients in a medium size bowl. From this picture, I also added some chopped peanuts and some coconut. I made the total dry ingredient amount to 3 1/3 cup. If you don’t want to add any mix-ins, just leave them out but leave the dry ingredients to 3 cups total.
I don’t usually like “filler” ingredients like Rice Krispies but I really like them in these granola bars. I’ve tried several recipes without but they seemed really heavy and harder to eat. With these granola bars it really lightens them up and makes them more enjoyable to eat.
In a pot, add the butter, honey, and brown sugar. After it has boiled for the two minutes, add the vanilla and peanut butter.
Pour the sauce in with the dry ingredients and mix it until it’s all incorporated. It should look something like this.
If the dry stuff doesn’t seem to be getting enough moisture, you might run in to the problem I had here…
It didn’t ever end up working out so I spread it on a sheet pan and let it cook and now we have some really yummy granola. Oops. Hopefully it doesn’t happen to you but it still wasn’t a waste.
Spread them in an 8″x8″ pan or even a little bigger if you want to end up with a few more. The granola bars did end up a bit thick so we just cut them into smaller pieces.
Spread it in the pan but don’t press down until you have added the mini chocolate chips and M&M’s. After you have added them, then you can press it down making it more compact and easier to eat.
Let them sit for 2 hours then you can cut them up and eat them.
You can wrap them up in plastic wrap, place them in little ziplock bags, or just keep them in the pan with a lid on them like we do. I love these Pyrex pans with the lid.
Granola Bars
⅓ cup brown sugar
⅓ cup honey
1/4 cup (1/2 cube)butter
1 tsp. Vanilla
¼ cup peanut butter
2 cups quick oats
1 cup rice krispies
⅓ cup any mix-ins. I split it between flax meal, chopped peanuts and a little coconut. If you don’t want anything extra, don’t add anything and forget about this ⅓ cup completely.
3Tbsp. Mini chocolate chips
3Tbsp. Mini M&M’s.
1-Make sure you have all the ingredients.
2-Clean your work area.
3-In a medium size mixing bowl add the oats, Rice Krispies and any mix-ins you want. Mix it around.
4-In a small saucepan add the brown sugar, honey, and butter.
5-Place the saucepan on the stove and let it cook until it’s boiling. Once butter is completely melted and it starts to boil, set the timer for 2 minutes and let it boil for those 2 minutes. You can keep stirring it for those 2 minutes or just every once in awhile.
6-Turn the stove off and add the vanilla. Be careful because the vanilla will splatter up a little so don’t burn yourself.
7-Stir the vanilla in for a bit then add the peanut butter and mix it around.
8-Once it’s all mixed together, add it to the bowl with the dry ingredients.
9-Mix it all around until it’s all incorporated.
10-Pour it out into an 8”x8” pan. Spread it out but don’t press it down.
11-As soon as it’s all spread around, sprinkle your chocolate chips and M&M’s on top.
12-Using a spatula press it down until it’s packed down. This way the chocolate sticks a little better.
13-Let it cool down for 2 hours.
14-Clean up mess.
15-Eat, Share, Enjoy!
