The New Granola Bars

I posted a recipe before that was just not quite perfected. These are a much better recipe than before and I know you will love them if you give them a try. They don't take long at all. If I can do them between taking care of an infant and dealing with 3 other toddlers, you can and you will never regret it!

2.5 cups rolled oats (toasted in the oven at 350 for a few minutes - be sure to stir them every now and then)
2 cups rice cereal 
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup Earth Balance vegan buttery spread (softened)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey (Make sure its not to strong of a tasting honey. Remember, this is just for texture!)
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup craisins (dried cranberries)
1 cup mini chocolate chips (semi-sweet)

Preheat oven at 325.

Toast oats and nuts. (Ok, I confess. I bought pecans already toasted because who wants to be in the middle of toasting and have to take a two year old on an emergency potty run and forget about them and have them burn? They are REALLY expensive but definitely the best for this recipe! I also bought them sugared or something and they just added a bit extra sweetness to the bars.)

Mix toasted oats, nuts, flour and baking soda. Allow mix to sit and cool before adding to wet ingredients.

Mix butter, brown sugar, and honey. Allow this to cool a bit also or you will melt your chocolate chips and have chocolate bars instead of tiny chocolate chips nicely spread throughout your bars.

Fold together wet and dry ingredients.

Add craisins and chocolate chips.

Press onto well greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 325 for 18-25 minutes or whenever it gets a little brown on top.

Let cool for 10 minutes and cut but do not remove from cookie sheet. I never cut them straight but I know it's best to keep them all uniform-ish to cut the whole thing in half and halfs and halfs then the other way the same thing.

Let cool all the way before you take them off the cookie sheet!

Wrap individually in wax paper for storage until service. I say wrap each one because of you just stick them in a container (which I do when I'm really to busy to sit and watch The Big Bang Theory and wrap 36 bars) they stick together and are hard to get out and unless you are having a party where you are serving all 36 bars, it's only going to get worse...

Now that you have made this recipe, I will tell you that it's vegan - accept for the chocolate chips which have milk fat in them... boo - (you knew that because of the buttery spread) but no one will know. You just feed these to them and they will be like, "AWESOME!" and never have a clue.