This last week I have been trying to catch up on cleaning and organizing. For me, that sometimes means purging. I made a large donation of stuff at Goodwill this afternoon. It felt great, always does! I went through dishes, Tupperware, shoes, and clothes. Then I had the kiddo go through his clothes also. Holy moly, now I have a ton of empty hangers now. Guess I need to go shopping to fill them again?!?! Just kidding. Kind of.
In addition to all that purging, I did some cleaning in the pantry. While digging around, I noticed a fair amount of dried fruit and nuts. Lately my go-to late night munchie craving is yogurt, dried fruit, and granola. That spurred my granola bar idea. I have made plenty in the past using your typical ingredients. BORING. Today I made granola bars today that are a bit outside the box. For one, they didn’t come in a box. I MADE them. And Holy crap they are yummy!! I made 4 different flavors. Spiced Pineapple Almond, Gingery Mango Walnut, Strawberry White chocolate, and Butterscotchy Chocolate. That is just using what I had. The possibilities and flavor combinations are limitless. I am pretty lucky; my kids have great flavor palettes. The youngest LOVES spicy food. I knew he would like these flavor profiles, and he sure did!
It is really quite simple. I made a double batch of the oat mixture, then divided it into quarters and mixed the “add-ons” to each of those. Let’s call those add-ons the “fixings” for recipe purposes. Seriously these are better than store bought snacks in general. Below is the recipe for a double batch. Definitely a must try!
Pantry Purge Granola Bars
Ingredients
- Oat Mix:
5 cups rolled oats
2/3 cup honey
½ cup butter
½ cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 pinches of salt
- Add-ons:
1/3 cup Almonds
1/3 cup Walnuts
1/3 cup dried pineapple
1/3 cup dried mango
1/3 cup dried strawberries
2 teaspoons cayenne
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/3 cup chocolate chips
1/3 cup butterscotch chips
1/3 cup white chocolate chips
Directions
- Toast your oats and nuts. Spread on lined cookie sheets, bake 10 minutes at 325 degrees.
- Meanwhile on the stovetop, combine honey, butter, brown sugar, vanilla and salt in a small saucepan over medium heat until sugar has dissolved. I stir frequently, careful not to boil over or burn the sugar.
- When the oats and nuts are toasted, I mix together the oats and mix from the saucepan in a large bowl. Once mixed, I divide into 4 parts. Put each of the 4 parts into it’s own mixing bowl.
- In bowl #1, mix in the pineapple, almonds and cayenne. Spread this out onto a lined cookie sheet. Press down and form into a rectangle shape. Depending on the size of your sheet, you can get 2-3 batches on each. See photo. You can also use speciality molds. Both ways are pictured.
- Repeat step 4 using the mangos, walnuts and ginger in the 2nd bowl. In the 3rd, repeat using the white chocolate and strawberries. In the 4th, use the chocolate and butterscotch. For kicks, I melted a little bit of chocolate to spread or drizzle on the chocolate/butterscotch mix.
- Once you have all your granola rectangles (Or molds filled), refrigerate for about an hour. Cut the rectangles into bars. You can wrap individually with parchment paper, or store together in an airtight container. They do freeze well also.
