Soft Granola Bars

Granola bars are great. Excellent if you're feeling a bit peckish, wonderful when you're on the go, and great for the kids' lunches. But they can be on the pricey side; especially when you have two kids and there are six bars in a box. So, to save emergency trips to the store, why not try your own?

Here is a great recipe that takes hardly any time at all to make.

• 4 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/3 cup brown sugar

Mix it all in a big bowl. It's tough to mix with a spoon, so feel free to use your hands.

After it's all mixed up, you can add the fun stuff. You'll want about two cups total of the additive, so you can use as much or as little of the below ideas to make up your two cups. Though they may be a bit crumbly if you are solely using a dry ingredient like nuts.

• Semi-sweet chocolate chips
• Almond slivers or other nut
• Raisins
• Dried cranberries or other berries
• Diced apple pieces

Fold in your additive and then press lightly into a parchment lined pan. This makes thick bars in a 9x13" pan, if you want thinner bars, use a large cookie sheet.

Bake for about 18-20 minutes (or until golden brown) at 325F.

Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes before cutting into desired portions. Then allow them to cool completely before you remove them from the pan.

Wrap individually and store in air-tight container, so they don't dry out.

For mine, I used 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1 cup almond slivers. Before I put them in the oven I sliced up some dates and scattered them about on top, pressing them in slightly so they wouldn't fall off. I found them to be on the chocolatey side, but the kids love them.

That's my taste on it.