Homemade Granola Bars (GF/DF)

Inspired by my favorite celebrity and meant-to-be friend, Jennifer Garner's pretend cooking show. Parker and I made a batch of these last week from her recipe and since then I've made a few tweaks to the recipe to make it less sweet and I'm smitten. 

While going homemade undoubtably is more work than buying a box at the store, they're still pretty darn easy. Chop a few nuts, throw them in a bowl with oats, cover with a little honey and friends, stir and bake...doesn't get much easier than that! Plus the result is a heck of a lot healthier than some of what you can get on store shelves! I also pretty much always have the ingredients on hand in the house which helps to make any recipe a keeper in my book. Let me know what you think!

Homemade Granola Bars (GF/DF)

Ingredients:
2 cups gluten-free oats
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup ground flaxseed
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup chia seeds
2 Tbls unsalted butter or ghee
1/4 cup honey
1/8 cup coconut sugar (or brown sugar)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

Optional add ins: 1/2 cup of chopped unsweetened cherries or cranberries, dark chocolate chips, etc.

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line a 9x9 (thicker bars) or 13x9 (thinner bars) pan with parchment paper.

2. Combine dry ingredients.


3. In saucepan melt the butter, honey, brown sugar, salt and vanilla.


4. Mix all ingredients together. Pour into parchment lined pan and press down.

5. Bake for ten minutes.


6. Take pan out. Pack it down again and bake for another 10 minutes.


7. Let them cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Then carefully lift the bars out with the parchment paper in tact and let cool for an additional 20 on a cooling rack. Cut into bars and store in a tuperware lined with parchment in the fridge.

Per Jennifer's suggestion, if you like chocolate (who doesn't!) melt some dark chocolate with a Tbls of coconut oil, drizzle over the bars and let it cool before cutting.