Vanilla Chip Granola Bars
These Vanilla Chip Granola Bars are crunchy, good for you granola bars that pack a punch with flavor from cranberries, sunflower seeds, almonds, honey and melted vanilla chips. Perfect for breakfast on the go, after school snack or before your workout.
The holidays have passed and the decluttering has started. In honor of a new year with less stuff, we’ve created these Vanilla Chip Granola Bars. They are the perfect treat to enjoy in between each room you are decluttering in your home.
Lately, our house has been organization central. Not only have we decluttered our bedroom, but our poor chest freezer has even been organized. We decided that it was time to create a treat after all of our hard work. However, we got to thinking, we’re trying to have less stuff in our lives, so let’s create a recipe that is simple to make with simple ingredients as well. We are not only cutting the clutter from our everyday lives, but we are also putting less “junk” inside of our treats as well.
Our Vanilla Chip Granola Bars are perfect for anyone who wants something sweet and crunchy, but not overly complicated to make. As we sat down to create these granola bars, the end goal was to make them as simple as possible, but still keep them delicious and good for you.
Besides, with all of the decluttering going on around our home, we had limited ingredients to work with. It was okay, it just made the challenge of coming up with a yummy treat that much more fun. Deep down though, I think we were just trying to avoid decluttering the house anymore because everyone knows that baking is twice as much fun as clearing away junk.
Our granola bars use 10 ingredients, however don’t let the list scare you away, they are all very simple. Usually with granola bars, you are reading the back of a package trying to understand what you’re about to eat. These bars are perfect for on-the-go or for a yummy breakfast. We’ve been eating them as our reward for getting rid of the junk in our house. You could eat them for breakfast or even for dessert. If you’re looking for a crunch, you’ll definitely want to bake these bars.
To add a little extra crunch to these Vanilla Chip Granola Bars, the first step is to bake the oatmeal, sunflower seeds, wheat germ, almonds and salt on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, turning halfway through.
Pour the mixture into a mixing bowl and add the cranberries, mix well.
On the stovetop, in a saucepan, add honey, Truvia Brown Sugar Blend and vanilla. Heat on medium heat, stirring constantly. Bring the mixture to a boil and stir until brown sugar is dissolved. The mixture will bubble and foam and turn to a light brown. Remove from heat, continue to stir and the bubbles will go away.
Pour onto oatmeal mixture and stir to coat evenly.
Pour into prepared pan and press firmly with the back of a spoon or your hands. Bake for 20 minutes at 300. Let cool completely.
One of our favorite ingredients in these Vanilla Chip Granola Bars is Truvia Brown Sugar Blend. If you follow our blog regularly, you know that we are huge fans of Truvia. We often use Truvia Brown Sugar Blend and it’s such a simple but awesome ingredient to use when baking. We love it because that means we use less sugar in our desserts. With Truvia Baking Blend, you’re using half as much as you would with sugar. Truvia also has packets that are perfect for your morning coffee or just to put in your purse for on-the-go.
Looking for more recipes using Truvia? We have lots to choose from!
Vanilla Chip Granola Bars
Ingredients
- 3 cups oatmeal (quick cooking oats is fine)
- 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
- 1/4 cup wheat germ
- 1/2 cup sliced almonds
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 3/4 cup honey
- 3 Tablespoons Truvia Brown Sugar Blend, packed
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1/2 cup vanilla chips or white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350. Grease an 8x8 pan and set aside.
- Sprinkle oatmeal, sunflower seeds, wheat germ, almonds and salt onto a cookie sheet.
- Bake for 10 minutes, turning halfway through.
- Pour into a mixing bowl.
- Add cranberries and mix well.
- Reduce oven to 300
- On the stovetop, in a saucepan, add honey, brown sugar and vanilla. Heat on medium heat, stirring constantly. Bring the mixture to a boil and stir until brown sugar is dissolved.
- The mixture will bubble and foam and turn to a light brown.
- Remove from heat, continue to stir and the bubbles will go away.
- Pour onto oatmeal mixture and stir to coat evenly.
- Pour mixture into prepared pan and press firmly with the back of a spoon or your hands.
- Bake for 20 minutes at 300.
- Let cool completely.
- Remove bars from pan (I just tipped the pan over and gave it a few solid "taps" and the granola fell right out!)
- Place onto a cutting board and cut in half and then into 12 bars.
- Microwave chips in 15 second increments, stirring in between until melted. Drizzle or spoon over cut bars. Let set so chips harden. ,l.
- Store in an airtight container for about a week.
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I love the idea of a homemade granola bar…so much healthier! Thank you for sharing with Delicious Dishes Recipe Party! Hope to see you again this week!