A Rural Journal: {Homemade Granola Thins Recipe}

Since I began watching my weight, I've been eating one of those store-bought chocolate frosted granola thins after dinner. It's my one chocolate fix each day. At 80 calories each, I don't feel any guilt whatsoever.

But at about $3.00 a box, I decided to see if I could bake them myself -- while attempting to keep the calorie count approximately the same.

I did some Google-ing and found this recipe on several blog sites and altered it just a smidge (mostly because I didn't have a couple of the ingredients on hand.)

Homemade Granola Thins

Ingredients:

3 cups rolled oats, pulsed in a food processor or blender.
1/2 cup sweet, shredded coconut
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup flour
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup peanut butter, melted
1/2 cup chopped nuts (Optional - your choice -- I used raw spanish peanuts)
1/4 cup honey (I used light karo syrup)
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used 12 ounces chocolate almond bark)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Generously grease a 15x10x1-inch baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the oats, coconut, brown sugar, flour, and salt. Make a well in the center, and pour in the melted peanut butter, honey (or karo syrup,) beaten egg, oil and vanilla. Mix until fully combined. Pat the mixture evenly into the prepared pan, pressing firmly.
(I pre-cut the mixture into squares before baking.)
3. Bake for 15-20 minutes in the preheated oven, until the granola begins to turn golden at the edges. .
4. In a microwave-safe bowl, heat chocolate chips or almond bark, stirring every 60 seconds, until melted. Spread melted chocolate over warm granola. Allow to cool and harden. Cut into squares and store in an air-tight container. These also freeze well.

Yield: 56 bars
Calories/bar: 95 (with nuts)
Calories/bar: 80 (without nuts)

Although the calorie count is a little higher than the store-bought version (due to the nuts,) they taste great.  You can omit the nuts and the calorie count will be the same as the store-bought brand -- 80 calories each.

Plus I saved about $15.00 by not buying the name brand version at the grocery store.

I know I will be making these again.

Sharing with
 Homestead Barn Hop,
What I Am Eating @ Townsend House

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