Granola Bars

I have a confession. I am slightly obsessed with granola bars. I am constantly searching for the best ones I can. Some are too small, or too expensive, too nutty or fruity, not even kind of healthy, etc. There are so many options out there! I had found a favorite brand a couple months ago, but sadly it was made by Fresh and Easy, which is a grocery store only in a couple of cities, of which Tucson is not one. So, this time instead of starting the search all over again I decided to make my own. Can I even do that?

They are chock full of lots of good for you stuff that is super yummy. And they are very easy to make, and way cheaper!

Homemade Granola Bars

1 c steel cut oats
1 c puffed millet (puffed rice or wheat would work too, I just liked the millet because it was the smallest)
1/2 c bran
1/2 c wheat germ
2 T flax seeds
1 T brown sugar
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t vanilla
3 T honey
1 banana
3 T oil
handful of nuts (i used sliced almonds)
1/2 c chocolate chips

1. Mix together dry ingredients and preheat oven to 325 degrees
2. Mash banana well and add other wet ingredients
3. Mix all ingredients together, it should make all the dry ingredients well coated.
4. Grease 9x9 pan and push ingredients into pan, press down as hard as you can so it is well compacted
5. Bake for 20 minutes, it should get slightly brown
6. Let cool, then freeze. Once frozen cut into bars and store in refrigerator, I made 12 bars

note: I know it might sounds like a lot of odd ingredients but they aren't too hard to find. The puffed millet, oats and wheat germ were in the cereal aisle. Altogether I spent under 10 dollars and have enough ingredients left over to make at least 3 more batches, probably more.

So I want to know, what snack can you not live without?