Clean Eating Granola Bar
Granola bars are the perfect snack. Loaded with yummy ingredients, nutrition, and they’re convenient too! Good for on the go. I decided to make some to keep in my lab coat at work so I can have a morning snack after rounds.
Problem is, if you look at the ingredients on any type of bar, they sneak in the not so healthy ingredients! Extra sugars, chemicals, and preservatives so it keeps in your cabinet till the apocalypse.
I decided to make a clean eating alternative to this so I could have them during my 30 day challenge (still going strong by the way and I feel great!)
A couple of hints before we jump into the ingredients. You will really have to SEARCH like crazy for natural dried fruits. If you go to the regular grocery store, almost every single brand has the extra sugar, if you get lucky you can find a few that are just dried and have the natural sugars. 🙂
For this recipe you will need:
-1 cup of whole grain old fashioned oats
-1 Tablespoon of ground flax meal
-1/4 cup of dried currants
-1/4 cup of dried cranberries
-1/4 cup of dried cherries-chopped (or any type of dried fruit without the sugars)
-1 packet of stevia in the raw
-1/2 cup of unsweetened vanilla almond milk
-1 fairly ripe banana, chopped as small as you can
-2 Tablespoons of natural peanut butter
-2 Tablespoons of natural honey
-1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
-1 tsp cinnamon
Also grab some parchment paper!
Start by heating up the almond milk in a pan for a minute or two, then add the banana and vanilla
Once it starts cooking some, try to mash the bananas down further. This is going to be easier with a fairly ripe banana. Mine wasn’t as ripe as I needed it, but I still used it and it worked fine.
Things should be bubbling a little bit, but don’t have the heat too high, keep it on low to medium so it doesn’t burn.
After things start mixing, add the cinnamon, peanut butter, and honey. Stir it up.
Natural peanut butter is a little thicker than regular, so while this cooks down some, prepare your dry ingredients: oats, dried cranberries, currants, and cherries, and stevia in the raw
Mix this together
By now your peanut butter should be melted. If not, keep stirring to help it out some!
I then mashed my mix with a rubber spatula a little to get the chunks of banana down to a minimum
Now you are going to add this to your oat mix
It will be quite sticky, but that’s good. We need to hold the oats together!
Next line a baking dish with parchment paper and slide the mixture in the dish
Flatten the mix out evenly and press down with a spoon or your hands. I used my hands even though it was sticky (worked the best)
Pop this in the fridge overnight to set
In the morning take it out and it’ll slide right out of the dish!
Peel away the parchment paper
And cut into 8 equal bars
And EAT one!
Here’s the thing about these. You MUST keep them in the refrigerator. Especially because there are no preservatives and it has the banana.
Because they are so sticky, I put them in individual freezer bags and placed a few in the freezer so they would stay fresh for the week. Don’t worry they will not get super hard. I suggest you do this and then just grab one each morning out of the freezer.
I lived on them all week long! So sticky and sweet 🙂
Nutritional info: 102 calories, 3.2 grams of fat, 16.1 grams of carbs, 3.2 grams of protein
BETTER THAN ANY GRANOLA BAR YOU CAN BUY!
Happy eating…
XOXO With a Cherry On Top,
-Minnie
Chugging at the End of the Work Week | Skinny Minnie Moves
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sophie
cant wait to try this recipe later on today 😀 thank you!!
Katie
Great! They are my favorite!
Lacy
These look and sound wonderful, I am wondering if I could make a few batches of them at once and just keep in the freezer. I think these would be great for my kids to grab on the way out the door. Do you know how long they keep in the freezer?
Thanks!!
Katie
A few weeks!
Mia T
Hi! Was just wondering if the ground flax is necessary! I only have whole linseeds could I just add them instead?
Katie
nope not necessary! I just add ground flax to my recipes sometimes. yes u can certainly add them whole!
Amanda
I am nervous about these since they are not baked- are they chewy or soft ?
Katie
Yes very chewy, there is nothing in here that will hurt you not baked…
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Mary
I was wondering if I could add some rice protein powder to boost the protein or should I not? How many bars does it make and could I double it or does it mess it up? They look yummy:)
Katie
You can certainly do that! I add protein powder to my skinny minnie clean granola! Works great. Makes about 8-9 bars depending on pan. I would not double it, I did that once with the granola (pretty much the same recipe) and it didn’t come out right.
Hayley
This sounds great, I can’t wait to try it. When you say 1 packet of stevia, how much is in a packet? I have some packets of stevia but they are quite small, like the size you’d put in a cup of coffee. So I’m not sure if that’s what you mean by a packet, or something else. Also, could I substitute honey?
Thanks!
Katie
Yes 1 PACKET! You can add more if you like it really sweet. I didn’t think it needed it. Everything in the recipe is okay to taste as you make it, so test it out and try 🙂
And yes honey is okay too
Eva
I agree…you don’t need it! Mine were plenty sweet w/ the dried fruit and honey.
Kelseyrae
This recipe looks great! Do you think it would work with regular milk instead of almond milk? I know it won’t technically be clean then but it’s just what I have at home.
Katie
YES! Regular milk will work, I just do almond milk for everything. It’s what I like 🙂
Andi
Is there something I can substitute for the bananas? I have a real hard time with the taste of them.
Katie
You can try applesauce too! Might not turn out as thick though
Eva
I made these last night and they are delicious! I used almond butter instead of peanut butter. Added a spoon of wheat germ (we are not gluten free obvi). I do have to say they’re really soft! Maybe the peanut butter would’ve helped?! Also with the dried fruit and honey it was plenty sweet. I did not add the Stevia. Thanks for sharing this recipe. It’s a nice treat when I need something sweet. Here’s to clean eating!!
Latasha
Question…do you have to use the flax meal? I’m not used to making my own food so not sure what to put in or not to put in. Trying to start eating better I’m not getting any younger!! Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks 🙂
kelly
this looks tasty. what pan size did you use–square (8×8) or a larger 9×13?
Katie
8 x 8!