So I've been loving and hating my food lately.  Refined sugar, gluten and dairy, and processed everything?  You've got to go.  I've been juicing (green juice, how I love thee), eating lots more fruits and vegetables, less meat, and have almost completely replaced my beloved sweet tea with.... water. Yes I did.  And my body has not revolted yet.  Actually, it is being pretty nice to me for a change.

The trouble is, my kids still love the junk.  And every once in awhile, I need a cheat.  So when my childhood best friend Laura posted this homemade granola bar recipe on her Instagram feed, I was all over it!  They're gluten-free, dairy-free, and raw. And they are delicious.  My kids were fooled, if that tells you anything.  Here is her recipe, and then my lazy adaptation:

GRANOLA BARS

1 cup minute oats

1/3 cup peanut butter

3 tbsp honey

1 tsp vanilla

Mix together well and press into muffin tins; refrigerate.

My husband buys granola bars at our grocery store every week, and we can't keep them in the pantry.  The kids nibble them for breakfast on weekends, I pack them in their lunches, I throw them in my purse for snacks in the car, etc.  We go through boxes and boxes and boxes of them.  Have you ever read the ingredients on a box of granola bars?  I grabbed our favorite brand, and was shocked to count at least six different additions of sugars, four separate corn syrup / high-fructose corn syrup ingredients, plus multiple ingredients of partially-hydrogenated oils and other things that I couldn't pronounce.  All together, there were thirty-nine ingredients.  Thirty-nine!

So we made Laura's granola bars, and my kids gobbled them up within minutes.  Told me they were the best granola bars they'd ever eaten.

Four ingredients, folks.  Four.

I use raw honey, and I sub almond butter for peanut butter.  By default, the basic recipe is gluten-free.  You can also get creative and add whatever you like: shredded coconut, cranberries or raisins or other dried fruit, chocolate chips (or carob if you're eating dairy-free), a chopped-up dark chocolate bar, almonds, pecans, cashews... the possibilities are endless.  But the basic recipe has just four ingredients to build upon.  Brilliant, I say.

I will admit: I'm not much of a recipe follower.  So here is what I do:

GRANOLA BARS

Dump in enough oats to probably fill the bottom of a brownie or loaf pan.  

Add a few heaping spoonfuls of almond butter.

Squeeze a big glug of raw honey so it helps the oats stick to the peanut butter.  

Stir until it all comes together.

Add a big handful of chocolate chips, if I have them.  Stir a little more.

If it looks (or tastes) dry at that point, then I add more nut butter.  If it is crumbly, I add another big glug of honey to make it stickier.  

And I usually forget the vanilla.  

Press into a loaf pan (or double the batch and press into an 8x8 brownie pan), cover and refrigerate, slice whenever the kids get hungry.

At night, I can whip up a batch in 5 minutes, stick them in the fridge overnight, and then slice them for breakfast or lunches the next morning.  THEY LOVE ME.