Granola Bites

I love the way my house smells after baking. It's so cozy. What I don't love about making granola bars is cutting them into bars. I always seem to cut some the wrong size, or pieces break off or I cut them at the wrong time and it's impossible to get my knife through. Sound familiar?

In my lazy-girl attempt to cut the hassle, I decided to bake granola bars using a cupcake sheet, thereby making them no-cut granola bites! This weekend, I made granola bars inspired by my favorite from Trader Joe's.

These tasty devils are a little chewy, a little crunchy, a little sweet, and a little savory. They're also loaded with a TON of sugar! See what I mean....

"Brown rice syrup" = sugar. "Evaporated cane sugar" = sugar. "Barley malt extract" = more sugar. Plus there is even MORE sugar in the chocolate chips and dried cranberries. So much for healthy, right?

For the Tiffany the Dietitian version, the texture is more crunchy than chewy. The ingredients are whole and simple with very minimal added sugar.

I have to write these things down or I forget....

Throw all the ingredients in a big bowl and mix-it-up.

After the ingredients are thoroughly mixed, spoon the mixture into a greased cupcake pan like so. I used a pam to grease the pan and a spatula to really pat them down.

Next, put them in the oven at 350F for about 20 minutes until golden brown. Once done, let them cool completely. This step is very important and possibly the most difficult to complete. The smell is intoxicating you by now.

Once done, pop them out of the pan. As long as they're completely cooled, they totally hold together. Survey the fine work you did and enjoy! Look at you...making your own granola bars. How resourceful! And look, they're so cute...just like you!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups rolled oats
• 2 tablespoons ground flax meal
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup coconut
• 1/3 cup raw almonds
• 1/3 cup cranberries

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix ingredients in bowl and stir until all pieces are evenly coated. Spoon into cupcake pan and pat down with spatula. Bake for about 20 minutes until golden brown. Let cool completely and use a butter knife to rim the edges of each granola bite to pop out of cupcake tin.

To enhance your granola-eating experience, enjoy with greek yogurt and berries. That's all.