Homemade Granola Bars

I mentioned in my morning post that I am working on eating less processed goods and more WHOLE, REAL foods.  Generally speaking, I do pretty well with this.  I eat a lot of fresh fruits and veggies, good lean meats, and fresh baked breads in my daily diet.  BUT, one area that I am particularly weak on is bars.  I LOVE bars of all kind.  Ever since I started running and using them as pre-run fuel, it was true love.

Welp, while I’m all about balance, my obsession with bars has gotten a little out of balance.  For me, it isn’t eating the BARS that is bad, it’s the processed nature of such bars.  So — something I am working on this week is creating my own bars that I can snack on, hopefully finding that I don’t feel like I’m missing anything by not getting the prepacked variety.

I want to start with some of my favorite recipe inspirations for you guys, via my favorite bloggers and pinterest.

Easy No Bake Peanut Butter Granola Bars from Fannetastic Anne 🙂

http://www.fannetasticfood.com/recipes/no-bake-peanut-butter-granola-bars/

These take 5 minutes to prep, have PB as a primary ingredient, and are stocked with seeds. My kinda bar 😉

Oatmeal Dark Chocolate Granola Bars Fannetastic Anne 🙂

http://www.fannetasticfood.com/recipes/no-bake-peanut-butter-granola-bars/

Oatmeal and dark chocolate?  I need this in my life.

Almond Energy Bars via Carrots’n’cake

http://carrotsncake.com/2014/03/almond-energy-bars.html

These just LOOK beautiful and crunchy!

No Bake Peanut Butter Bars

http://unsophisticook.com/no-bake-peanut-butter-bars/

I’m drooling. . .

And these are just a few of my favorites, friends.  The options out there are ENDLESS.  I started working on some baked goods last night via some free continental breakfast oats — and will be working through out the week trying to perfect my own little recipe 🙂 ❤  The ingredients I’ve been using so far include:

• Peanut butter (duhh)
• Rolled oats
• Brown sugar and maple oats
• Trail mix (raisins, M&Ms)
• Applecause

These are my must have’s basically, but I’m looking to add more seeds and crunchy goodies moving forward!  Hopefully by next week I’ll have a recipe to share with you guys 🙂

Question of the Afternoon:  Ever make  bars yourself?