Easy Granola Bars from MountainMamaCooks

I came across Mountain Mama Cooks when browsing the comments for the cookie swap.  Her blog is beautiful and pretty funny.  I feel like we must have crossed paths at some point in our lives.  Someday, we'll exchange journals (I don't keep one- but if I did, she could read it) and say, 'you were at ------- in 19--?! Me too!' Then, we'd eat . . . 

Picture From Mountain Mama Cooks! 

So, to warm her up a bit, I've made one her recipes. The first time I made this, I tried to go by memory for the ingredients and forgot some at the store so I didn't follow it exactly.  I used honey instead of maple syrup and crannies instead of blueberries (Wholefoods no longer carries them!!!!). They still turned out really good but they didn't stay together as well as I would have hoped.  So I made them again!  This time I used raisins and some cinnamon and the maple syrup.  It was really good and did stay together better but I think my favorite part was the crumbles- on yogurt, in some milk, etc. YUM!  Please go here for her recipe.

Next time I make this I will use less coconut.  It was good but a little too strong for the whole family (my husband). I also found this unsweetened toasted rice cereal (in the bulk bag in the front) which KC loved and worked great in these bars substituting for some of the oatmeal or almonds.

Toasted almonds, coconut, and oatmeal.  Can you smell it??

Simmering syrup and butter. You add the vanilla, salt, and cinnamon before pouring.

I ladled the syrup over the dry ingredients and mixed with a rice paddle (I'm Japanese!) until it was evenly distributed then poured it out into a 9x13.

My grandma made wonderful 'Energy Bars' which were essentially kicked up Rice Krispy treats.  She always laid out plastic wrap to press down the mixture.  

Genius

Out of the oven to cool.  I cut them later that night then packaged them (mostly in my stomach) and completely forgot to take a picture.  Oops.

This recipe is pretty customizable.  Any dried fruit or nut would work and I think adding some kind of chocolate chip or drizzle would be nice too.  Thank you to Mountain Mama!

Lauren delivered some of Mountain Mama's Mashed Veggies to me the other night, and they were amazing!  That recipe is definitely a keeper.  KC liked them until he tasted the Chicken Parmesan (or 'chicken pizza') at which point he completely ignored the mash and dug into the chicken. Sweet boy:)