Granola Bars fit for a Wench
1/2 cup dry quinoa
2/3 cup raw sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup applesauce or mashed ripe banana
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup all-natural peanut butter or almond butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/3 cup water or nondairy milk
3/4 cup whole wheat or all-purpose flour
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup soy flour (wheat or other flours work too)
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup sliced raw almonds
1/3-1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds and/or pumpkin seeds
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2-2/3 cup raisins, dried cranberries, or other dried fruit bits
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit,and toss dry quinoa into an ungreased 9 x 13" baking pan. Place it in the oven to start toasting. You may want to set your oven to a slightly lower temperature if you take a long time measuring and mixing. Every few minutes, check on the quinoa and stir it around to ensure even toasting.
2. In a small mixing bowl or large liquid measuring cup, mix all the wet ingredients, including raw sugar. Use a fork to mash up the banana into the wet mixture, if you're using that. Banana baby food works here, too.
3. Turn oven up to 325 degrees F. In a large mixing bowl, mix the dry ingredients together. Go ahead and check the quinoa; by now, it should be a golden-brown color and have a nice, toasty aroma. If not, toss it around a bit and let it toast some more. When it's toasted, mix it in with the dry ingredients, and add your wet ingredient mix.
4. Now that all ingredients are mixed and you have a thick, oatmeal cookie dough-like substance, grease the 9 x 13" baking pan. Spread the granola goodness into the pan in an even layer, and place the pan on the center rack of the oven.
5. Bake for 20-22ish minutes, rotating the pan at least once in between to ensure even baking. Cut into 16 bars with a spatula. If they seem too doughy in the cutting process, put them back in for another 5 to 10 minutes, checking often. Let cool and enjoy!
For a lower-sugar version, replace desired quantity of sugar with a slightly lesser amount of mashed banana, applesauce, or other sweet fruit puree. Agave nectar and pure maple syrup also work well.
These granola bars are packed with protein and fiber, and they're great for a quick snack or a grab-n-go lunch companion for work or school. They're much cheaper than the store-bought varieties, and healthier, too. Sometimes I make a double batch of these and freeze some (wrapped tightly in cellophane) for later consumption.
Source of recipe: A culmination of many of my own experiments.
SO HOW'D IT GO?
these are super healthy and really satisfying!! perfect oatmeal bars loaded with good stuffffff. these were my changes:
1/2 c. agave instead of molasses and sugar
1 mashed banana instead of oil in addition to the 1/4 c. applesauce
3/4 c. wheat flour and 3/4 c. wheat bran in replacement of the flour, wheat germ and soy flour
i used chopped walnuts and pecans for the nuts/ seeds
and chopped apricots for the dried fruit
thanks for the recipe :)>>>
This recipe sound so delicious. I would like to make these into slightly chewy granola bars. Any suggestions, mine always come out too hard or way too soft (falling apart)?
Here's another great variation, Double Peanut Butter:
PB for the butter
Dry PB subbed for soy flour
Milled flax seeds subbed for wheat germ
Hemp seeds for the seeds
1/3 cup each of golden raisins and non-dairy chocolat chips
Super-freaking-yumminess!
I have to say again how much I LOVE these granola bars. I have made them twice since I first posted 3 weeks ago. I wrap them in plastic wrap and store them in the freezer. Each morning, I take two out and put them in my bag for the day. I'm a teacher and don't get much time to eat lunch. These tide me over wonderfully until I am able to get home in the evening and eat a real meal.
I replace the oil with apple sauce (and add a little bit of oil, maybe one tsp).
I add flax seeds because I like them.
I have been using chopped up prunes as the dried fruit and it is delicious.
I also add about 1/4 cup of chocolate chips.
I cannot stop eating these. They are so good!
Really good! I forgot to add the salt and baking powder, so I ended up adding them at the end. The salt didn't mix in very well, so I have some very salty bites of granola bar. Aside from my own human error, though, these are great! Mine didn't come out very neat and tidy, but they taste good, and that's what's important.
This recipe is AMAZING!!!! I replaced the oil with apple sauce and added 1 cup of sesame seeds because I didn't have any almonds. A definite do again
My new breakfast food! I love these and have a double batch baking right now. I love how versatile the recipe is - I'm often out of one thing or another, so just make substitutions, and it turns out great. I seriously ate a whole pan in a week. Well, I did take some to work to share, so I didn't them ALL by myself.
I made these again as a chocolate chip and almond butter variety. Still very tasty. They aren't quite as sweet as I would like, but that's my fault because I replaced the sugar with unsweetened apple sauce. I'll be sure to add a little extra sugar next time.
I am newly vegan and this was the first recipe I've followed. Of course I made a few alterations, I used the flaxseed meal instead of wheatgerm as well, I didn't have any raw sugar on hand so I used brown and cut the amount in half and I only had whole almonds so I coarsely chopped them up and they added a really nice texture. Considering I cut the sugar in half and I used only 1 banana (a bit more than 1/4c) I found them to be quite sweet and taste mostly like banana. They're also a bit crumbly, so I think next time I will up the amount of almond butter and use the raw sugar and see if that helps. Aside from that they're great and I recommend this to anyone and everyone!!
I used almond butter as I worry about the amount of mold in peanut butter, sunflower seeds, and cranberries as the dried fruit. Oh, and just because, I threw in 1/4 cup hemp hearts. I have apple that I dehyrated myself, I think I might also try making an apple/cinammon version of these. YUM!!
These are by far my favorite home-made granola type bars to date. Yummy and filling!
I made a few small alterations: I switched out the wheat germ for milled flaxseed, barley malt syrup instead of molasses (I was fresh out), and added extra bannana and non-dairy milk to sub the oil.
I used pumpkin seeds, sunflower seed butter for the nut butter, and dried cherries for the dried fruit.
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