I’m so excited about this 30 healthy foods plan that I already have a million things to post!
I’ve been making homemade granola bars for a few months now. I am a girl constantly in need of snacks (especially on car trips or in class), so I go through a lot of granola bars. The store bought granola bar habit was getting kind of expensive (and probably not so good for me), so I decided to make my own.
I started with an almond butter granola bar that incorporates three of the 30 healthiest foods! Its ingredients include almond butter, oatmeal (both steel-cut and old-fashioned), and almonds. According to Real Simple, almond butter’s health benefits include heart-healthy monounsaturated fats and protein. Oatmeal can help lower your cholesterol, fight against heart disease, and provide a good source of soluble fiber, which keeps you full longer. Almonds have monounsaturated fatty acids, which keep your blood vessels healthy, and they can help lower cholesterol. Sounds healthy to me.
Check out the blog I share with my super talented friend, Becca, for the almond butter granola bar recipe.
After a few batches of the almond butter granola bars, I was craving something different. Chocolate, of course. And what goes better with chocolate than peanut butter? Nothing.
So here we go, incorporating another one of the 30 healthiest foods! Peanut butter! Real Simple suggests buying the all-natural kind, comprised of just peanuts and salt. That’s something that I can definitely support. Peanut butter is rich and tasty without any extra ingredients. Just be warned that natural peanut butter requires a bit of stirring before use, as the oils naturally separate, which makes it look super gross.
These granola bars have all of the same health benefits as the almond butter bars, with the addition of dark chocolate, which is apparently the healthiest form of chocolate.
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Granola Bars
1/2 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup peanut butter
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 cups oats (I used a mix of old-fashioned and steel-cut)
1 cup slivered almonds
1 cup dark chocolate chunks
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line an 8×8 inch pan with parchment paper.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine honey, vanilla, peanut butter and cinnamon. Mix until well combined.
Add oats and mix.
Add almonds and chocolate chunks. Mix until incorporated.
Press the mixture into the pan and press down until tightly packed.
Bake 25-30 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool in the freezer until firm. Lift the parchment paper out of the pan and cut granola into 8-12 bars.
I store my granola bars in an airtight container in the freezer to keep them fresh and then grab them on the go. They thaw out pretty quickly, so you can eat them almost immediately.
-Ally
Betsy says
Ally – thanks for this idea!! They look super delicious!! LOVE the idea of putting steel cut oats in them! Yum! And BTW – your pictures are fabulous!
mrmrscoop says
Mmmmm I may make these soon… But I know we would go through them SUPER fast!
FYI- we make our own natural PB- just buy unsalted, dry roasted peanuts, and let them whir in your food processor (if you have one, if not, come borrow ours) and sha-zam. Home made natural peanut butter. Best thing? If you eat PB as much as we do (daily), it doesn’t separate. You can add your own amount of salt, a sweetener if you wish, and you can even drizzle in a bit of oil to make it super runny! A pound of dry roasted peanuts at the Beaumont Kroger is 2.25 per pound, and it makes one jar (plus a little extra) of PB, so it saves a few bucks! AND it’s fun 🙂 You can even make chocolate peanut butter, honey roasted PB… oh the possibilities are endless!