Honey-sweetened Granola Bars

I've been looking at bento blogs recently and one of them happened to have a granola bar recipe. Y'all know what a sucker I am for new granola recipes...what I liked was that the only sweetener (minus extra fillings like fruit and chocolate) used is honey. This is a first - every other granola bar recipe I've found so far has some sort of additional sugar in it. Of course, I didn't really keep it very healthy because I added craisins and chocolate chips and a little sweetened coconut to mine...lol, oh well!



Recipe from What's For Lunch At Our House:

3 1/4 cups rolled Oats (or combination of oats and other whole grains)
3/4 cups Whole Wheat flour (or all-purpose)
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 T. Vanilla Extract
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used canola)
1/2 cup honey
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 cups "Stuff" (I used 1 cup craisins and 1/2 cup chocolate chips and coconut)

Preheat oven to 325.
In a large mixing bowl combine oats, flour, baking soda, and any spices you want to use.
In a separate bowl, combine vanilla, oil, and honey.
Pour wet mix into dry and stir to combine.
Stir in the "stuff" you want to use.
Spray an edged cookie sheet or pan with cooking spray and press VERY firmly into cookie sheet. (I used an 8x11 pan).
Bake at 325 for 18-20 minutes until top is turning golden brown.
Remove from oven and firmly press down bars again with a spatula or similar, and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes.
Cut into bars--they are hard to cut if you allow it to completely cool.

Allow to finish cooling completely before removing from pan.

~*Final Notes*~ These turned out great! I wasn't sure if they'd end up crunchy or chewy, and they were a nice firm chewy texture once cooled. I didn't add any nuts or sunflower seeds like I usually do, and the addition of chocolate chips made it taste almost like an oatmeal cookie. I do believe this is my new favorite recipe. You can tweak it however you want. One thing I want to try out is apple cinnamon - the lady mentions making it on her blog but doesn't say how she tweaked the recipe. I imagine you would up the cinnamon and perhaps add chopped dehydrated apple pieces. Maybe I'll try that next time I make them.