Granola Bars

Landy Bandy! He is such an amazing boy, words would never even get close to describing how much love I have for my first "baby" boy. Landon is in preschool now, three days a week, all day. We miss him terrible those three days. Trevor just asked this morning if we could go pick up Landon now. Trevor usually asked to go pick up Landon early at least once a week. Ethan has now joined in in missing his brother. He goes to the door and says, "YANNY!" Landon does so well at school, so that part of having him not be here is good. He loves people, so being around so many in a class room setting is totally his thing. 

Here is my sweet Landon on his first day of school this year (only blogging about it almost 3 months later, oops!)

What does any of this have to do with granola bars? Ah, yes back to granola bars. Landon has been asking and asking for me to make him granola bars, and I keep forgetting (aka putting it off). Not today. Even though I am not feeling 100% (darn you sore throat!), I am on the ball and have the bars in the oven as I type. Of course I wouldn't blog about it and not share the recipe, so here it is. Enjoy!

Granola Bars

• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup wheat germ
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 cup flour (can use wheat if you want, or a mix of white and wheat)
• 1 cup *whatever you want* I used chocolate chips, could use any dried fruit, nuts, etc
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 2 tsp vanilla
• **1/4 cup applesauce if you want them more on the gooey side, don't use this if you want a crunchier granola bar!

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the oats, brown sugar, wheat germ, cinnamon, flour, *whatever mix* and salt. Make a well in the center, and pour in the honey, egg, oil, and vanilla. Mix well (use your hands!). Pat the mixture evenly into the prepared pan (my rubber spatula does this best).
3. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until bars begin to turn golden at the edges. Cool for 5 minutes, then cut into bars while still warm. Don't forget to cut while they are still warm, or they might get too hard to cut (especially if you didn't use applesauce)

Will be bringing one in to Landon when I pick him up from school. Love you Landy Bandy!!