Vanilla Almond Granola Bars

After doing egg muffins for breakfast the last two weeks in a row, I'm ready for something different.  So here is my latest breakfast adventure:  homemade granola bars!  The great thing about these is they are totally customizable.  You can use any kind of cereal here.  I just used the Chex because that's what I had, but feel free to use anything you want, from Grapenuts to Lucky Charms.  You could also switch up the almonds and pecans for walnuts, pistachios, or whatever kind of nut you're into.  Follow the method, but switch out the ingredients for whatever you've got in your pantry.

The key is to incorporate ingredients with varying textures.  The big cereal squares and almond chunks contrast beautifully with the little bitty flax seeds and the finely chopped pecans.  That, my friends, is what makes a gourmet granola bar.  They're crunchy and sweet and toasty and pretty much everything you could ever want.  At least in a granola bar.

Vanilla Almond Granola Bars

Ingredients:

3 cups old fashioned oats
2 cups Rice Chex cereal, kinda crushed
1/4 cup flax seeds
2 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup molasses
2 Tbsp water
1/3 cup honey
1 & 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup plain almonds, roughly chopped

Preheat oven to 350.  Line a cookie sheet with foil.

In a large microwave-safe mixing bowl, melt butter.  Once melted, add the oil and the salt.

To the butter/oil mixture, add the oats.  Toss to coat.

Spread the oats evenly on the cookie sheet.

Bake for 18-20 minutes, stirring twice to keep from burning.  Reduce oven temp to 325.  Save your foil, and now spritz it with non-stick spray.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine brown sugar, molasses, water, and honey.  Stir often.  Bring to a boil, then remove from heat.  Stir in vanilla.

Now chop the almonds and pecans.  For the pecans, you want a finer chop, and the almonds, you want a rougher chop.  Ain't nothin wrong with finding an entire almond in your granola bar.

That just sounded like Honey Boo Boo.

Anyhoo, here is pre-chop:

And post chop:

Grab your large mixing bowl again.  To the bowl, add your cereal and flax seeds.

Then add the nuts.

Next add all the toasted oats.  Stir to combine.

Now pour your brown sugar and molasses mixture over the top.

Toss to coat evenly.  It should be sticky, and will look like this:

Now dump it all onto your prepared, foil-lined cookie sheet.

Press along edges evenly.  You can see that I didn't take it all the way to the right edge so that it would make thicker bars.

Bake at 325 for 20 minutes, or until just getting golden.

Allow to cool completely.  Cut into bars or squares, or you can crumble it.

Store in zip top bags or air tight food containers.  Enjoy!