Cranberry Walnut Granola Bars

Granola bars: the food that we live off of when we spend hours on campus and are unwilling to pay for over priced food in the bookstore.

Last semester, I did a pretty decent job keeping up on making granola bars for school - mainly for Bryan because he is on campus all the time.  I am not since I don't have any labs.  I had a baked granola bar recipe that calls for flour, another baked recipe that does not call for flour, and a bake less recipe.  All of these are fine and dandy, but I wanted change.  They didn't seem enough like granola bars.  They seemed more like oats held together by sugar and a few other random ingredients.  These, however, are granola bars.  Made from homemade granola!

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 cups granola
• 1 cup rice krispies
• 1 cup craisins
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

1. Line 2 loaf pans with foil and spray with cooking spray; set aside
2. In a medium sauce pan, add butter, brown sugar, and honey
3. Heat over medium heat, stirring to combine
4. Continue stirring until butter has melted completely
5. Bring butter mixture to a boil
6. Once boiling, lower heat to medium-low and simmer for about 2 minutes
7. Remove from heat
8. Add in granola and rice krispies, stirring to coat evenly
9. Stir in craisins and walnuts
10. Divide mixture between the two loaf pans
1. I am not good at dividing equally...
11. Spread the mixture and press down in each pan
12. Let set for 15-20 minutes or until the mixture has cooled and set
13. Lift bars out of loaf pans and cut into individual bars
14. Store in air tight container

Pre-cutting
My distribution of craisins and nuts is lacking, I know ;)

Note: I used almonds this first batch, because I had some left over from a previous recipe.
They seriously took just a few minutes to throw together.  How perfect are these for school or work?!  I love that I can make a large batch of granola and have it ready to go when the time comes to make granola bars.  I also love how easy it is to substitute in other ingredients for the craisins and walnuts - like chocolate chips, raisins, pistachios, white chocolate chips, mini M&M's.... you get the picture