Homemade Granola Bars

August was very busy with two family reunions, sick kids, and the whole getting ready for going back to school hustle and bustle!  Now the kids are all better, I've recovered from planning two family reunions, and the kids have all necessities for school.  Now, I have time to blog.:)

The recipe I'm sharing today is an essential for packing lunches...homemade granola bars.  This recipe is so simple, just FOUR ingredients!  I like simple, and my kids like eating simple.  One preference I have on my oats is that the type you purchase in the large plastic gallon buckets(mine is currently a 23 lb bucket) work much better than the ones you buy in the small paper containers on the breakfast isle at the store.  I have purchased mine at Caselot sales or at Costco.  They seem "fresher" to me and make a better granola bar. So, without further delay...

Homemade Granola Bars

6 C quick oats
5 C Rice Krispies brand rice krispies( or any other kind if you're not avoiding soy)
1 bag Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips
2 cans sweetened and condensed milk

Grease a cookie sheet that has sides with butter.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a very large bowl, combine first three ingredients. Stir until well combined.

Then add the two cans of sweetened and condensed milk, and stir until it is fully incorporated.

Pour into prepared cookie sheet and press down into pan.  I like using a "fold over" sandwich baggie that I have dipped in softened butter so that it doesn't stick to my hand or the baggie.

Once it is pressed down well(it should reach about to the top of the sides when pressed down), bake in the oven for 20 minutes.  My lovely oven doesn't brown evenly, so I rotated it at 10 minutes.  Hopefully you all have fabulous ovens and won't need to do that!  The granola bars will be lightly browned when done.

When done, remove pan from oven and set on a cooling rack.  Allow the granola bars to cool about 40 minutes before cutting.  Then allow to cool completely before removing from the pan(2-4 hours is best).  You will usually need to run a knife through again.  It is important for them to cool completely so that the sweetened and condensed milk has time to reabsorb.  Otherwise your granola bars will not come out looking very nicely because they are too gooey.

I cut mine in 9x4 rows so they are the shape of a granola bar...like this photo:

Once cooled completely, using a spatula, I carefully take out the first row.  Then, I place them either wrapped individually in plastic wrap in a freezer safe plastic baggie or I just put them in quart-sized freezer baggies without the plastic wrap if I'm in a hurry.

We go through these like crazy with seven people in our household, so there isn't much time for them to get freezer burn or dry out.  If you have less people in your household, then I highly recommend wrapping them in plastic wrap prior to placing them in a freezer baggie.  Then just pull these out each morning when you're packing lunches and wa-la you just made awesome granola bars for much cheaper then purchasing them at the store.  And there is no worry over nut contamination or soy.  Yeah!

I really hope you enjoy these.  Please leave a comment and let me know if you needed to adapt in another way!  If you can enjoy nuts in your household and want to add nuts, simply decrease the amount of oats and rice krispies equal to the amount of nuts you want to put in.  We can't do nuts, seeds, or coconut in our household, so we are pretty basic here.  But basic is pretty TASTY!

Have a happy lunch packing week!