New Favorite Granola Bars!

I also made up this recipe yesterday. I was craving granola bars and found a few online that looked good, then combined elements from a few of them. These are a great snack bar to boost energy while out in this wintry weather! The kids LOVE them! You can improvise with whatever ingredients you might have around the house such as wheat germ, dried apple pieces, white chocolate chips, dates, pecans, etc. YUM! YUM!

4 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup quick oats
1/4 cup flax seed - ground
1 c sunflower seeds
1 c raw Spanish peanuts (crush these a bit first)
1 c sliced or slivered almonds

Place all of the above in a jellyroll pan and roast @ 400 for about 12 minutes - stir often! Watch closely, you just want to slightly roast them, do not burn them! When you remove from oven, stir in about 1/3 cup soy flour. Cool.

Now, line another jellyroll pan with waxed paper and then spray it with spray oil or just lightly butter it. Set aside.

In heavy saucepan on medium, mix together and simmer:
1 1/3 cups brown sugar
1 c honey
8 T butter
2 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup peanut butter
1 t salt

While this cooks, transfer oats mixture to large bowl and then stir in about 1 cup raisins and 1 cup craisins (or any dried fruit bits) into the oat mixture. You can also add chocolate chips, but they do melt when you add the peanut butter mixture, it is just for chocolate flavor anyway.)

Pour hot peanut butter mixture over the oats mixture and stir to combine. Pour into the waxed paper lined jellyroll pan and spread it out with a greased spatula. Cover with more waxed paper and really press it in there to flatten all over.

Let cool for at least 4 hours. Cut into whatever size bar you want, wrap in plastic or waxed paper and store for snacks in frig or freezer.