Granola Bars - Simple Saturday

When Kristen chose "Oatmeal" as our Mystery Ingredient for this month I just groaned. I have never liked oatmeal or anything with oatmeal - until now!

I know how good oatmeal is for us and since I am on my health and fitness mission I decided to create something that was nice and healthy - and even if I didn't really like it I would eat it for the health benefits. Well, boy did I surprise myself! I love them, hubby loves them and the boys love them!

Ingredients:

3 cups oats
1 can condensed milk
1/4 cup craisins
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup flax seeds
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup shelled sunflower seeds
2 teaspoons melted butter
2 teaspoons honeySpray 9x13 pan with Pam, mix all ingredients well and pour into pan, press flat and bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until lightly browned around edges. Flip upside down on parchment paper, let cool for 5 minutes, cut. That's it, ready to eat!

For anyone who is a calorie counter, I calculated the recipe above to be about 140 calories per bar. Not bad at all for a quick, healthy breakfast or snack on the go!


I've made several batches this month. For one batch I omitted the butter, honey and chocolate chips - and added 2 scoops of protein powder (all for the health and fitness mission). They came out just as good in my opinion!

The next batch I made for the boys omitting the raisins and craisins and added a little extra on the chocolate chips -The main ingredients are the oats and condensed milk, everything else can be mixed, matched or substituted to your liking.

All versions taste more like a dessert than something healthy!

Thanks so much for choosing oatmeal for our Mystery Ingredient Kristen! You've turned my whole family into oatmeal lovers!

Don't forget to link up your oatmeal recipes on Kristen's post on Friday, January 29th right here at Our Krazy Kitchen!

Link up your Simple Saturday recipes here today! :-)