Snack Time

I don't know about your kids, but my kids live for snack time. We have a rule in our house. You may not have a snack until 3pm. The kids watch the clock. Their bodies are in tune with this rule. Sometimes when we're out and about, they'll start complaining of hunger. I'll look at the clock, and sho'nuff, it's 3:00. I made something this week that they absolutely love. So much so that a certainly teenage boy who lives with me brought two in his lunch...one for lunch, one for a snack at school. I thought maybe I would share the recipe, since I don't have a ton of exciting stuff to blog about this week.

Chewy Granola Bars

4 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2/3 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease one 9x13 inch pan.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the oats, flour, baking soda, vanilla, butter, honey and brown sugar. Stir in the two cups of chocolate chips.
Lightly press mixture into prepared pan. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool for 10 minutes, then cut into bars. Let bars cool completely before removing from pan.

After the bars were cooled, I wrapped them individually in saran wrap. This made for easy transport in lunches, or in my purse if we were running errands. As for add-ins, I think you can use any combination of fruits/nuts/chocolate you choose. I bought some walnuts and dried blueberries today. I plan to try that sometime this next week. Enjoy!