Chewy Granola Bars
These thick granola bars can be customized with any kind of nuts, seeds and dried fruit your kids like, in any proportion. If you don’t have oat flour, make some by processing oats in a food processor until powdery, or try substituting barley or quinoa flour.
Chewy Granola Bars
AuthorJuliePreheat the oven to 350°F and spray an 8"x8" pan with nonstick spray.
In a large bowl, stir together the oats, brown sugar, oat flour, salt and cinnamon. Stir in the dried fruit, nuts and seeds.
In a small bowl, whisk together the canola oil, nut butter, honey and vanilla. Add to the dry ingredients and stir until well blended and crumbly. Press into the prepared pan.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, until golden around the edges.
Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack before cutting into bars.
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°F and spray an 8"x8" pan with nonstick spray.
In a large bowl, stir together the oats, brown sugar, oat flour, salt and cinnamon. Stir in the dried fruit, nuts and seeds.
In a small bowl, whisk together the canola oil, nut butter, honey and vanilla. Add to the dry ingredients and stir until well blended and crumbly. Press into the prepared pan.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, until golden around the edges.
Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack before cutting into bars.
What a great cause!
On a more selfish note- 2 years ago I made a perfect granola bar. It was the perfect ratio of chewy oatmeal to chocolate chip and raisin. Tragically I lost my recipe source in that swirling-void-recipe-cyber-land of the internet and have been granola barring in vain ever since. This looks like a good contender.
Thank you, Julie, for being such a caring person and putting forward constructive ideas! Our lives get so busy we often forget the little ones out there who need “the village to raise” them 🙂
Love the peabutter idea – I keep forgetting about it, but must give a go sometime!
I’ve been making homemade granola bars for our house lately. Love how easy they are to customize (my current batch has dried blueberries, currants, chopped almonds, and choc chips).
I can’t think of anything worse than being the kid who has to pick up a charity lunch. Maybe it’s my generation, but I would rather do without lunch. And did. I’m speaking from experience, at being the “one”. A spare lunch would be a world of humiliation.
Sorry to be the one dissenter here. I know your heart is good Julie, and the “spare” lunch makers want to do good too.
Feed all the kids, no questions asked, no qualifying.
It’s funny how many feelings are associated with school lunch. I felt like a loser having a big old woody carrot in my lunch instead of Fruit Roll-Ups, but now I can appreciate my parents’ efforts. I’m sure there is a wide range of feelings about receiving a donated lunch, and not all kids feel the same way about it. At least there is food available for those who need (or want) it, rather than no lunch option at all.
There was a great story in Avenue last year on BB4CK – you can see it here – http://www.avenuecalgary.com/articles/page/item/charity-profile-brown-bagging-for-calgarys-kids – here’s an excerpt:
“We had one school where we delivered lunches, and the lunchroom supervisor put all the lunches on a table so the kids who needed them could help themselves,” recalls Switzer. “At first I thought, ‘Oh no, these kids are going to be singled out.’ But the kids didn’t see it that way at all. They saw it as a sharing table, and also added things to it that were extra or that they didn’t want. There’s no way I could have administrated something like that. It had to happen organically, as so many of these solutions do.”
My first reaction to this idea was that my niece and nephew would see a sharing table as a way to get rid of whatever was in their lunch that they didn’t want to eat, and not get in trouble for having it show up back at home in their lunch bags! I guess it’s really a matter of coming up with a solution that works within each community.
I think at first, the child will eat. The giving child will feel compassion. Then, they will begin to feel resentment, both of them. 1.) Feed all the children with a cafeteria or whatever can be arranged by the school board. 2)Show the children how to feed themselves, instead of giving. I imagine the parents feel fairly humiliated and resentful too, even if they are too polite to say so, or have it be seen. It’s there. If all children are fed at school, it becomes a non-issue. Eat, study. This way, there’s something else packed in that bag.
I’ll not comment further on this, here.
That was me, above.
A very interesting issue. My Mother works at one Calgary public school where sharing foods is a no-no. Too many allergies have led the school to create this rule. However, if the supervisors notice someone without a lunch or are approached by a hungry kiddo, there are rations to help them out. All are allergy safe (think plain rice cakes, fruit cups etc). If a child is noticed to use this ‘spare’ food more than once, the parents are contact to find out the circumstances. Sometimes it is found that the child does not like what is packed, forgot the lunch or more unfortunately, that there is no food in the house. Hampers can be arranged and then the child can bring a lunch from home.
I don’t know what the ‘best’ solution is. Sometimes no lunch is the only thing visible of a much greater problem. No lunch, perhaps no dinner? What about breakfast?
During a practicum for nursing studies (now a few years in my past) I worked at a school where a breakfast program was initiated. Wonderful things occured once tummies were full.
Interesting to think about. Better to find solutions for.
Thanks for the dialogue!
Great ideas Julie. First breakfast for learning, then help with luches, … makes you wonder if they get supper either?
I am really liking your effort! But I have to tell you that I work in a grocery store in a low-income area . It is absolutely amazing what people put in their shopping carts. You have two or three obese children following two obese parents with one liter of milk and eight liters of coca-cola. Because anything that is remotely within their price range is totally manufactured with huge amounts of salt and fat and sugar.It is heartbreaking!
oh, i think i need these in my life…
My kids attend a small inner city school to which brown bag lunches are delivered. I discovered this service when, in Grade 2, my daughter’s sandwich was knocked off her desk and fell apart. The supervisor gave her a spare sandwich made with baloney (first time tasting baloney) which she loved. The next day, my daughter’s thermos of soup tipped. Another baloney sandwich. The next day, her crackers and salmon dropped on the floor and she stepped on them! Another baloney sandwich. After speaking with the lunch supervisors and figuring out her con job, we had to have a stern talk with her about why exactly those extra lunches are in that school!
I’ll be interested in hearing what W’s school has to say about developing a “lunch bank”. Our school’s lunch supervisors are stretched pretty thin and I’m not sure how they administer those spare lunches. They do keep an eye on what the kids are eating. No sharing (allergies) and nobody is allowed to throw out their garbage (well, apple cores and stuff go to the worm compost bins in each class). Every night I dissect the lunch kits to figure out what was eaten that day. It’s like CSI in the kitchen.
Wow. This is a really interesting set of comments! I really appreciate seeing this from several (informative and informed) perspectives. That said, I just want to say that I have no idea how you keep producing awesome blog posts alongside everything else you do. If no one has said it to you recently, Julie I really appreciate you!
I don’t comment often, but I visit regularly 🙂
where do i get barley flakes from??
Mar – I get them from the bulk section of Community Natural Foods!
I like the way you think, Julie. And the way you bake, too, of course.
Those look like great granola bars.
I’m for any lunch delivery method that gets kids to eat healthy lunches.
Does anyone know if there is a local source for a Victorio Food Strainer ?A friend has one and I have been looking for a year or more.
OMG Julie!!! Eric’s slow cooked pulled beef was a HIT tonight with everyone…they said, Maman it tastes like ribs….THANK YOU, they won’t eat roast beef anymore….
Love your blog…very touchy subject eh!
I was one of those kids with NO or very little lunch some days, as my Mother was a widower, depressed, poor, and lacking management skills on how to manage money for food….
I remember sitting in front of a brother and sister with amazingly prepared lunches, a brown bread healthy sandwich, and this was in the 1976’s, cut up carrots, celery, cheese, crackers, sometimes soup, grapes, apple, like amazing lunches…and over here I had a “mustard” sandwich…or jam sandwich with an apple….and that was lunch…sometimes none 🙁
Being a child with an empty stomach was hard…I was hungry…I would of loved to have a free sandwich or soup…with fruit, cheese…you know…just something to fill my empty tummy. Something I could of grabbed on a table, there for sharing would have been nice.
Anyways, have a great week Julie, love your blog 🙂
BB4CK was our charity of choice for Tonic 2009. I love what they do. I’ve been down there making sandwiches!
I think most schools do a great job of being “casual” about it – if you don’t have a lunch then take one. And they know when it’s a bigger challenge than just a forgotten one.
I don’t see it as a “world of humiliation” or whatever else. Kids need to eat. Simple.
Sign me up for whatever you spearhead for Ramsay.
Our food bank here in Orlando, FL does a weekend packed lunch program for kids who get free lunch at school because they were realizing that sometimes, the free lunch at school was one of the only meals the kids were getting. They pack things like fruit cups, easy open canned ravioli or soup and granola bars and put them in the kids backpacks on Friday afternoons so no one knows that they’re getting them. Its really sad to think that there are so many kids going hungry in one of the richest nations in the world.
Here is part of what I received in response to my questions put to this bag lunch organization:
“We are completely opposed to any universal lunch program because it only serves to dis-empower individuals and families and create entitlement. Our position is that if we provide a hand up, people will find their own way to become self sufficient(…).”
“We do not accept government funds to feed kids because we believe that this issue is not a government responsibility. We believe that every Albertan, given the opportunity and circumstances will take care of themselves, their family and their community.”
(…)
“Poverty and social circumstance are relative not absolute. They should be temporary rather than permanent and are only perpetuated and exascerbated by the prisons of entitlement that governments continue to create. Government should be the last recourse not the first for many reasons not the least of which is that it absolves each of us of personal responsibility.”
I feel sick to my stomach reading this. This is the unseen item packed in the bag lunch.
Brown Bagging feeds kids that are hungry. It is done with love and dignity. Kids need to eat healthy food to grow and reach their potential.
Brown Bagging also wants to be a catalyst for community solutions and yes, the labor of love of a lunch is one tool to do this.
Ask yourself, “if your brother’s child was hungry, what would you do?”
I want to live in a community that cares for eachother. I want to live in a commuity that values and teaches love, sharing, and caring rather than lack of responsibility, fear and liability.
We need to take responsibility and accountablity for our lives and empower those struggling to do their best, to do the same.
How do you feel when someone does something nice for you???
It makes you feel good and in that place of goodness helps you thru possibilty a tough time and a defining moment of your life.
Perhaps Brown Bagging could turn its attention to the issue of casinos, parents who are in there gambling with the family food budget and neighbourhood schools which benefit from money raised through the addiction of the parents of those lucky kids getting a bag lunch. There must be a better way.
I wasn’t aware of this, but how serendipitous. The government would rather we fed kids at school with money raised on misery. Comming soon to a community school near you, a fund-raising day a the neighbourhood liquor depot.
It is government responibility to provide school lunches. It’s a major learning aide, to have a full tummy. We are the government, and we funds roads for everyone, whether I drive that way or not, we fund healthcare (ooops, maybe spoke too soon). If parents want to get involved in the school let them do so, but not in a way that insinuates poverty is temporary if “we” just show “them” how it’s done. That’s what I read in the BB mandate.
http://edmonton.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20101006/edm_fees_101006/20101006/?hub=EdmontonHome
Um, I think you’re reading ALOT into that BB4CK mandate! They provide brown bag lunches to schools for kids who don’t have lunch that day, for whatever reason.
Why on earth would the government provide lunches for every single kid in the school system?
I’m not sure how casino money and an imaginary liquor fundraiser got mixed up into this discussion. BB4CK is a private organization. Casino monies go towards those little “extras” that government funding doesn’t stretch to cover. Little things like a fax machine for the school office.
If you want to get angry about something, ask why a school must purchase equipment through the official Calgary Board of Education supplier. Last spring our Parent Council used fundraising money to purchase a $350 fax machine through the CBE equipment supplier, after the old one broke. The same model is at Costco for $120 but the school was not allowed to purchase that one. We had to use fundraising money because there was no money left in the school budget for that extra expense.
Casino fund raising is unethical. We’re burning someone else’s life for a fax machine and the like? How that got into this is we can’t have it both ways; we’re such socially responsible people that we provide some bag lunches. But then again, … .
As for BB, they are not a “private organization” They are a registered charity and get tax breaks from that. From the government. And, the corporations who back them get tax write-offs. BB claims they don’t take government money. They do. They say taking government money is “prisons of entitlement that governments continue to create. Government should be the last recourse not the first for many reasons not the least of which is that it absolves each of us of personal responsibility.”
There are schools in Alberta (and elsewhere in Canada) that have cafeterias. Everyone gets fed. Some buy, and there are privately and sensitively arrangements made for those in need. It looks to me that with BB the focus is on the good feeling the provider gets, at the expense of the family in need. Again, the nasty little surprise in the brown bag is the judgment about those in poverty and how they got there and how long they stay there, those with disability, illness, work injury, job loss, access to education limited by class, and the implied casting of blame on the victim if the poverty is not “temporary” ie) the family is on welfare, social assistance, or whatever you want to call it, and it’s not their personal failure.
“BB4CK is a private organization”
“(…) ie) The family is on welfare, social assistance, or whatever you want to call it.
People are in poverty for societal causes, and it’s not their personal failure.
I just made these !
I subbed coconut oil for vegetable oil and I think that is the reason that they crumbled up when I went to slice them. No matter though ! It’s a delicious recipe and next time I’m following the recipe exactly =)
I just found your blog through a friend and it is great! I realize that you probably don’t want unsolicited recipes, but I still would like to share this one…
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/jo-anns-power-bars/detail.aspx
As a mother of 5, a box of granola bars (which are really just pimped up chocolate bars, who are we kidding) doesn’t go very far in our house. I’ve tried numerous recipes in the past, including one using a can of sweetened condensed milk like your other granola bar recipe, which is great in a pinch, but isn’t very healthy. This one is my favourite. It is infinitely adaptable. For instance, I often substitute canned pumpkin for the applesauce and use pumpkin seeds and pumpkin pie spice (and maybe a few butterscotch chips!) It’s easy to throw in some hidden nutrition in the form of flax seeds or wheat bran or whatever you have on hand, and I can easily make them nut free (both for my allergic hubby and for school).
Yr recipe in SWERVE for Chewy Granola Bars does not have oats or nuts . The only ingredients you mentioned were dark chocolate, tofu, banana, vanilla and i/4 cup peanut butter. You end the recipe with pouring the above into individual dishes. Could you forward the ingredients left out as my granddaughter and I love tofu.
P.S. I do love trying out your quick and easy reipes in SSSSSSSSSWERVE
Betty – yes there was a mistake with the layout in that issue – that was actually a recipe for chocolate tofu mousse. I’ll email you that recipe directly.
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