Granola Goodness

So my new full-time writing job means less time for blogging.... and even fewer spare moments for baking. But, a 45-minute commute also means I want a breakfast that I can take with me. And that's where my newest baking adventure was born - homemade granola bars!

After doing just a brief world wide web search, I narrowed it down to three recipes. The first one I tried two weeks ago, but unfortunately didn't take pictures of. The bars turned out great (they tasted more like dessert than breakfast), but they didn't keep me as full as I would have liked. They were also pretty crumbly, something I attribute to my use of Chex cereal. The recipe can be found here - an excellent, healthy treat for peanut butter lovers :)And the use-any-cereal step means that their are infinite variations on this simple recipe.

This week, I moved on to my next recipe. With more flax seed (I used it instead of the called for wheat germ) and no peanut butter, I hope these will prove healthier and more filling. I haven't breakfast-tested them yet, but the sample taste proved promising. I like that these bars have more fruit (which is purely based on my trying to finish off the bag).

Tip: nuts and dried fruit can be on the more expensive side, and since this endeavor was mostly taken on to save money, that was a bit of a bummer. To save the dough, I bought a bag of mixed nuts and dried fruit for $4. In the first recipe I was able to keep them mixed, and in the second I had to separate them, but it really wasn't a pain. Definitely worth the $4-$5 it saved me!

The next recipe I try will be this one, but that won't be for a few weeks (off to NYC Feb. 17!). Care to try it and report back?

Does anyone have any granola bar recipes they've tried and loved? I'm particularly into ones that have common ingredients (again, for saving the green), but I'm sure there are some great variations with unique ingredients.

Happy baking!