Homemade Granola Bars

Over the past month, I have done my best to avoid buying pre-packaged snacks for the kids. To be honest, we didn't eat a lot of packaged snacks anyway, with the exception of crackers, but every once in a while, we'd pick something out. We tend to have the same snack rotation, so I decided I wanted to make a new snack, that was filling, somewhat healthy, and that the kids would think of as a real treat. Dylan loves to eat granola for breakfast, so I thought I should make my own granola bars. I didn't think it would be too difficult, and boy was I right! I found a recipe on allrecipes.com that was perfect for us! With a little tweaking, I feel I have made a delicious, healthy alternative to packaged granola bars. The options for this granola bar are endless, and they taste great with whatever you have on hand! Here is the recipe, with some ideas for extra things to "throw in the mix".

Deliciously Easy Granola Bars

• 3 cups oats
• 1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
• 3 tbsp melted butter
• 1/2 cup wheat germ (optional)
• 3-4 cups of "extras" (1 cup coconut, 1 cup sunflower seeds, 1 cup sliced almonds/walnuts/pecans/peanuts, 1/2 cup cranberries/raisins, 1/2-1 cup mini chocolate chips, or anything else you desire!)

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 9 x 13 pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix together oats, condensed milk, butter, wheat germ, and
    whatever extras you would like with wooden spoon.
3. Pour mixture into greased pan and press flat with back of spoon or hand.
4. Bake in oven for 20 minutes, until lightly browned around edges.
5. Allow to cool for at least 15 minutes before cutting and removing from pan (otherwise they will fall apart).

You can cut these into bars or squares. Store in airtight container or freeze in individual servings and take them for lunch or snack! I hope you enjoy these as much as we do!

**For today's bars, we added - 1 C sunflower seeds, 1 C peanuts, 1 C chocolate chips. I would have thrown in coconut (my fav add-in), but we were all out!