Why We Love Sunrise Fresh Dried Fruit
Have you ever wondered why a bag of dried fruit contains more ingredients than just fruit? Sunrise Fresh wondered the same exact thing! While other companies pack their dried fruit with sugars and other ingredients, Sunrise Fresh lets the fruit speak for itself with all-natural flavor and no added ingredients. And you can order Sunrise Fresh directly to your door from !
Looking for something sweeter?
How To Make Them
This recipe moves quickly, so I recommend you have all of the ingredients you need measured and ready to go before you get started. Place the oats in a large bowl, so they are ready when you are.
First, youll boil the honey in a small saucepan. As soon as you start to see bubbles, set a timer for exactly 1 minute.
Theres no need to stir the honey as it boils, but you can lower the heat slightly so the bubbles dont get too high in the pot.
When the timer goes off, remove the pan from the stove and stir in the peanut butter and salt. Stir until smooth, then pour it over the oats.
Stir well, until the oats are evenly coated. The mixture will start to harden as it cools, so thats why youll want to move fast.
Spray an 8-inch square dish with oil, then press a piece of parchment paper into the bottom.
Press the granola bar mixture firmly and evenly into the bottom of the pan. If you want to add any extras on top, now is the time to do it!
I like to add almonds, a drizzle of dark chocolate, and flaky sea salt.
Let the bars chill in the fridge for about an hour to cool down and firm up. Slice them into 12 bars.
For a smaller snack-size bar, you can cut them in half again, too! The serving size is up to you.
How To Make Fat
Enjoy your breakfast on-the-go with these easy to make granola bars. With some oats, dried fruit, whey and honey, you have yourself a full meal ready.
10 mins
- 1¼cupsquick-cooking oats
- ¼cupwhole wheat flour
- ¼cupwheat germ,toasted
- ¼cuphoney,plus 2 tbsp
- 1tspcinnamon
- cupraisins ,or chopped dried apricots
Instructions
Nutrition
Also Check: Oven Elite Air Fryer Recipes
Ingredients Needed For Peanut Butter Honey No Bake Granola Bars
- Old fashioned rolled oats
Its back to school time for us here in Arizona. Now that I have a Kindergartner , I am transitioning into my role as the mom of an elementary school aged child. That means packing lunch, preparing after school snacks, and making sure I send him off to school with a full belly.
My Mom would never let us leave the house without breakfast and its something thats stuck with me all my life. Now, I find myself doing the same with my kids!
I try to feed my kids a balanced, nutritious diet and Im always looking for ways to satisfy their sweet tooth with something that actually has some nutritional value. Ive been relying on these No Bake Peanut Butter Honey Granola Bars lately for breakfast or afternoon snack. Ill even drizzle a few with melted dark chocolate and pass them off as dessert.
This recipe is made up of rolled oats combined with peanut butter, honey, and a touch of salt thats it! Theres no need to bake them, press them into a pan and chill in the refrigerator until they firm up. I like to store these in the refrigerator, they hold together best if they are slightly chilled.
The great thing about this peanut butter granola bar recipe is that you can make these as regular peanut butter and honey granola bars or you can switch things up with the mix-ins of your choice. You can add a handful of mini chocolate chips or raisins, a couple tablespoons of chia seeds, or you can drizzle them with melted chocolate.
Healthy Alternatives To Granola Bars
While I do think granola bars can be healthy when you are watching the ingredients, if you are looking to vary it up and try some other healthy snacks, here are some suggestions:
Energy Balls & Bars
Youll thank yourself for having these healthy granola bars around, whether your tummy growls like mine, or you are one of those people that has to remind yourself to eat lunch .
Happy snacking!
Don’t Miss: Recipe For Cranberry Bread Or Muffins
Granola Bar Recipe Ingredients
You only need 7 basic ingredients to make this homemade granola bar recipe:
- Natural peanut or cashew butter It helps bind the bars together, and it adds protein, healthy fats, and irresistible nutty flavor.
- Whole rolled oats They give these bars a perfect chewy texture. If youre gluten-free, make sure that you use certified gluten-free oats.
- Honey Along with the nut butter, it helps all these ingredients stick together! I love its warm amber flavor in this recipe.
- Vanilla extract It amps up the bars warm flavor.
- Sea salt To make all the rich, sweet, and nutty flavors in this recipe pop!
- Pepitas, crushed peanuts, or cashews They add healthy fats, protein, and crunch.
- Mini chocolate chips Who doesnt love nut butter and chocolate?! Be sure to use mini chocolate chips here, as regular chocolate chips are too big to make cohesive bars. If you dont have mini chocolate chips, finely chopped dark chocolate will work in their place.
Find the complete recipe with measurements below.
Honey Oat Granola Bars
The best part about these granola bars is that they’re loaded with simple ingredients, require no baking and no eggs – perfect for meal prep!
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
If youre ready for a wholesome and delicious way to start the day, these Honey Oat Granola Bars are perfection. Made with simple pantry staples, youll never have the need for store-bought breakfast bars ever again.
The best part about making homemade granola bars is that theyre really simple to do. When you can make a delicious oat bar recipe like this one and have success every time, why not keep going with that tasty momentum? While these are great to meal prep for a quick breakfast, theyre also good for simple snacks throughout the day as well.
Recommended Reading: Skinny Girl Coffee Syrup Recipes
This Granola Bars Recipe Is Flexible
We have a history with granola bars. A while back, we shared a cooking failure. The subject was granola bars. They tasted great, but fell apart. So, we sort of gave up and moved on with the thought that one day, we would be ready to give them another shot. After two years, weve picked up where we left off and have now figured out how to make these simple, soft and chewy granola bars. Were in love. They taste great, are incredibly easy to make and they absolutely do not fall apart .
Weve made these many times now and every time, theyve been just a little bit different.
Here, you see whole almonds, dried cranberries and mini chocolate chips. Weve also used dried cherries, apricots and unsweetened coconut. Were even thinking about adding pistachios next time.
The possibilities are endless all you need to know is the base. Oats, butter, honey and brown sugar. After that, add what you like.
More recipes with oats: Try our Everyday Oatmeal Recipe, Easy Energy Balls, our favorite Overnight Oats or this Strawberry Banana Baked Oatmeal.
Important Note On Granola Bars Mix
Mix-ins are where you can get creative in these granola bars! A wide variety of nuts, seeds and dried fruit will work. But heres an important thing to remember:
- Finely chop the mix-ins so the bars hold together. Huge nuts and seeds cause the texture of the granola bars to become more fragile, making them break more easily.
- Use mini chocolate chips, not standard size. Same idea as above: the standard size may cause texture issues. Mini chocolate chips are just the right size for incorporating in a granola bar. Just ½ cup gives great bursts of chocolate flavor. You can chop standard sized chocolate chips if its all you have.
You May Like: Jordan’s Skinny Syrups Keto Recipes
Common Commercial Granola Ingredients:
- Whole grain oats Unsoaked, but potentially fine.
- Sugar How many different kinds of sugar can we find in granola bars?? Sugar, honey, brown sugar syrup, corn syrup, invert sugar, corn syrup solids, glycerin, molasses, sorbitol the list goes on. When processed sugar is the second ingredient , you know theres a lot of it.
- Canola and soybean oil Rancid GMO vegetable oils. Yuck.
- Rice flour Yes its gluten free, but it may also high in arsenic.
- Soy lecithin While the amount is tiny, the source is concerning.
Soy lecithin, is actually a waste product from the manufacturing process that produces soy oil. It is extracted from the sludge that is left after the soy oil undergoes a degumming process.
Mmm degummed soy sludge. Even better, non-organic soy lecithin is gmo and likely contaminated with toxic solvents like hexane.
It is possible to get healthier store-bought granola bars, but theyre harder to find and generally arent cheap.
Benefits Of Healthy Homemade Granola Bars
- quick & easy
- contain fiber & carbohydrates
- customizable to your preferences: nuts, fruit, chocolate chips, seeds, coconut flakes, etc.
- and of course: nourishing ingredients instead of highly processed junk food make it a guilt-free regular snack instead of an occasional compromise!
Some homemade versions of popular store-bought items are labor-intensive and complicated, but this ones the total opposite! This deliciously chewy, healthy granola bar recipe is incredibly quick and simple.
Ingredients like oats, coconut oil, nut butter, and add-ins like chocolate chips and dried berries come together to make a chewy, sweet treat. These arent break-your-teeth-hard like some other options on the market, but they still have plenty of sustenance to them.
You May Like: Barrett’s Esophagus Diet Recipes
How To Make Them Nut
For a nut-free granola bar that you can use as a school lunch idea, try using sunflower seed butter or tahini to replace the peanut butter.
In that case, you might want to use a little extra sweetener, or press some raisins or cranberries on top, to help distract from the slightly more bitter flavor of the ground seeds.
How Do You Like Your Healthy Granola Bars
So are you a peanut butter and chocolate chip fan? A raisins and almond butter nut? Let us know what your favorite mix-in ingredients for homemade granola bars are!
Enjoy them with a hot beverage from this list, or pack them in a reuseable snack bag to take with you.
These granola bars would also be great in an ice cube tray size for little bite-sized snacks perfect for toddlers! Or add them to your next muffin tin lunch!
In the meantime, here are some more snack ideas for you to try your hand at.
You May Like: Lipton Onion Soup Chicken Recipes
Granola Bar Recipe Tips
- Use runny nut butter. Look for natural cashew or peanut butter with a smooth consistency to make this recipe, not the dry, stiff stuff that you might find at the bottom of a jar. If your nut butter is too dry or thick, it wont bind the oats, chocolate chips, and nuts or seeds into cohesive bars. Use creamy nut butter, not crunchy.
- Dont cut the chilling time short. Its tempting to slice and eat these bars as soon as you press the oat mixture into the pan, but in order for them to be chewy and cohesive, they really need to chill. Pop the pan in the fridge for at least one hour before slicing and eating the bars.
- Store them in the fridge or freezer. Once you slice the bars, cover the pan and store it in the fridge, or transfer the bars to an airtight container. I recommend storing them with a sheet of parchment paper between layers so that the bars dont stick together. Theyll keep for up to a week in the fridge, but you can also freeze them for up to 2 months. I like to eat these granola bars straight out of the fridge, but if theyre frozen, let them thaw at room temperature for 20 minutes before you eat.
What Granola Bars Are Good For Weight Loss
I think this recipe is it! Here’s the kickers, it’s eating in moderation but not limiting yourself or removing huge categories of food from your diet. Feeling the need to lose some weight? I highly recommend reading Intuitive Eating. It changed my life.
Which granola bar recipe will you be making first?
Here’s one last combo because it’s my current obsession – the master mix with pecans with dried blueberries and a little bit of cinnamon thrown in. You guys, it tastes like a berry crisp and I’m not complaining. It’s so good!
You now have so many granola bar recipes to start with and loads of information to find success! I can’t wait to hear which variation you make first.
Don’t Miss: Easy Drink Recipes For Halloween
Are Nature Valley Granola Bars Healthy
In a word, No. While theyre on the more natural side and do tout some simple ingredients, most store-bought granola bars are lacking on the health aspect thanks to high amounts of industrialized oils and sugars. Lets take a look at some of the main ingredients youll find in popular brands like Quaker Oats and Nature Valley.
Granola Bar Flavor Combinations
Our favorite flavor for this recipe? Chewy chocolate chip granola bars, of course! But there are so many more fun flavor combinations. Here are some ideas to get your wheels turning:
- Peanut butter and jelly: add dried cherries or freeze dried strawberries
- Dried cranberry and white chocolate chips
- Pepita and cashew
- Blueberry muffin: add dried blueberries and chopped almonds
- Pecan pie: Add chopped pecans and ½ teaspoon allspice
- Coconut mango: Add shredded coconut and chopped dried mango
What are you planning to add to your granola bars? Let us know in the comments below!
Read Also: Hot Buttered Rum Easy Recipe
Peanut Butter Honey No Bake Granola Bars
Posted:
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
Peanut Butter Honey No Bake Granola Bars ~ Easy, No Bake Granola Bars are Flavored with Peanut Butter and Sweetened with Honey! Perfect After School Snack for The Kids or Healthy Snack For You!
These Peanut Butter Honey No Bake Granola Bars are the perfect quick, easy snack for after school or anytime! I love that they are flavored with peanut butter and sweetened with honey. I know Im giving my kids a healthy snack to fuel them on the go, plus Mom loves them too! I love that I have all the ingredients on hand and I can mix in my favorite extras!
Can I Make Substitutions
This granola bar recipe is pretty flexible as far as the add-in ingredients. You can use raisins, dried cranberries, nuts and seeds, chocolate chips, etc. in whatever amounts you want as long as they add up to two cups.
The almond butter could be swapped for peanut butter, or another nut or seed butter.
If you try any substitutions beyond that, let me know in the comments!
To make getting them out of the pan easier, heres a handy tip. Cut a piece of parchment paper to line your pan, but leave enough excess to hang over the edge. This way, when youre ready to remove them from the pan, simply use the extra parchment as a handle to pull them out.
Recommended Reading: Moringa Powder Recipes For Weight Loss
Homemade Granola Bars Vs Store Bought
Pretty much everything you see on grocery store shelves can be made at home. Cooking at home when you can is better for your familys health because you know exactly whats going into your food. Many popular granola bars and dried fruit brands add preservatives, sugar, and processed ingredients for longer shelf life.
Most homemade recipes, including this Homemade Granola Bar recipe, are cheaper, in the long run, to make from scratch. In fact, you probably already have most of the base ingredients for the granola bars in your kitchen.
Your biggest hurdle will be deciding how you want to customize your granola bars. Add peanut butter, pistachios, or chia seeds to switch things up. We love using Sunrise Fresh dried fruit because the only thing in their products is real fruit!
They help us know exactly what we are putting into our recipes and still deliver fresh, sweet, and delicious flavor.
Popular Substitutions & Additions
- Switch out the almonds. If almonds arent your favorite, feel free to substitute with any other nut you like, including walnuts, pecans, cashews, or hazelnuts!
- Add dried fruit: Adding in dried fruit like raisins, craisins, or even chopped up dates can be a great way to add a hint of natural sweetness. Add between ¼ and ½ cup.
- Add chocolate chips: Theres always room for chocolate, right? Chocolate chips or even cocoa nibs are a great flavor for this recipe. Make sure to allow the granola mixture to cool before adding the chocolate chips so they dont melt. Add between ¼ and ½ cup.
- Make it vegan. If youd like to make these vegan, you can substitute coconut oil for the butter and agave or maple syrup for the honey. Just be aware that some of these substitutions will bring their own flavors into the mixif you dont want your granola bars to have tropical or pancake breakfast vibes, make sure to use agave syrup and refined coconut oil, which are both neutral in flavor.
Read Also: Bone Broth Protein Powder Recipes