down to the core: the results are a little crumby

For those of you who have been following my blog, I posted before the granola bites I usually make myself for a mid-morning snack in school. If you haven't read that post or don't remember it (it was a while ago) feel free to refer to it here. Anyway, this week I wanted to try something new, so I decided to make granola bars for myself. I based my bars off of this recipe from Food Network, but I used a little less of a few ingredients and changed around some as well. This might have been the cause of the unexpected result I got of very crumbly granola, or maybe I left it to cool too long / left it in the oven too long. I'm not sure. But somewhere I went wrong and the granola bars that resulted are very disfigured in shape and there are almost as many granola crumbs are there are bars.

But fear not, bloggers! The recipe came out extremely delicious, so what I did was cut as many bars as I could from the pan, and then afterwards I took all the excess granola that fell off or crumbled away and put it in a Mason jar to put on yogurt or just to munch on. It all works out well in the end, don't worry.

And what's great about this recipe is that it really does taste amazing. But what's cool (and I feel like a commercial where the mom is successfully hiding 500 servings of vegetables from her kids in a delicious meal when I say this but...) is that this recipe really is pretty good for you. There is sugar and honey and butter - yes - but they are ok to have in a snack (sugar in snacks? crazy thought!) and there are great ingredients in here as well.

One ingredient that I want to put in the spotlight is wheat germ. The germ is the small part inside a kernel of wheat that germinates and grows. It nourishes the growing grain, so wheat germ is jam-packed with nutrients. Wheat germ has protein (2 tbsp has 13% of your daily value!), essential amino acids, vitamins, fiber, and more. And in this recipe, it's completely concealed by the looks of the other ingredients, and it goes unnoticed because of the super delicious taste of this granola [bar].

Here's what you'll need:
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 tbsp unsalted butter
2/3 cup honey
1/4 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 - 1 cup add-ins (walnuts, craisins, chocolate chips, etc)

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Toast the oatmeal on a sheet pan for 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned.

2. Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl and stir in wheat germ.

3. Reduce the oven temperature to 300.

4. Place the butter, honey, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook and stir for a minute, then pour over the oatmeal mixture. Add in the add-ins.

5. Pour mixture into a 8x12in baking dish lined with parchment paper.

6. Bake for 40 minutes, then cool (I don't know exactly when the right time to cut is at this point.. my guess is check back with it in half an hour and see, if not keep checking every 15 minutes until it'll cut well without crumbling).