Healthy Rice Crispies+The Best Way to Wrap a Granola Bar

So, these are basically a granola bar or a healthy rice krispy. For those who are already super healthy with a low-sugar diet, you can trick your kids (and self!) into thinking they are eating rice krispies. When really, it's just a granola bar with the same texture and way better ingredients.
Nowadays, it seems that either granola bars are way over-priced for what's in them, what's in them isn't healthy but it's cheap and tasty, or they have the best ingredients, flavor, and nourishment but are way to expensive for your budget.
I noticed this a few years ago, and strove to find the perfect granola bar recipe that wasn't too crumbly, didn't have extravagant ingredients that are great but normally aren't in our pantry, was easy to make and didn't take much $$$.

After trial and error, I discovered a recipe my mom had printed out and tried. Unfortunately, it had been printed and stuck on the fridge for a semi-permanent encampment of 3 months. I don't know why this guy got forgotten, but finally one day I tried it and became instantly obsessed and made it over and over.
Then, we moved.
Changing residency can be full of disorganization and chaos, which caused the Precious Recipe to become lost for a grand total of 3 years.
Sometimes I just wonder.
Two years into the deal, I tried to find a recipe that could be some type of match, and ended in a total fail of crumbles. After much looking for the original, I finally gave up thinking it would turn up one day.
Sure enough, I was digging through a recipe binder searching for something, and I discovered multiple missing recipes, along with our Perfect Granola Bar Instructional with joy and celebration! There was no way I was loosing it again. I copied it multiple times and stuck it in my VERY organized cookbook. Recently, I found a chance to make it on account that we were going on a weekend farm trip for my birthday. So, I grabbed the opportunity and here goes...

As you can see, these are coated in an unmistakable drenching of chocolate. If you want to be healthy there are some other options.

• Drizzle the dang things. That's actually what I started off doing, but added too much coconut oil and it became way too watery. I'd just do only chocolate if you want to attempt a fine sprinkling.
• Press mini chocolate chips into the top to get a taste of it without extra calorie, unwanted fat, and sugar overload.
• Leave it plain. Some people don't even like chocolate (I can't imagine, but it must be more of a blessing than a curse. Ha-ha.) or would just prefer less sugar.

Wrapping them is also very essential for portability and sticking-together-ness. I'll show you how to do that right after the recipe!

Rice Crispy Granola Bars

Ingredients:

4 c. Quick cooking oats

2 c. Crispy rice cereal

1/2 c. Butter

1/2 c. Honey

2/3 c. Brown sugar

1 t. Vanilla

Chocolate chips (amount may vary)

Directions:

Prepare a 13x9 with oil, then combine oats and rice cereal in a large bowl and set to the side. Melt the rest of the ingredients on medium in a 2 quart saucepan except vanilla and chocolate chips. Mix it consistently until it's bubbling, then reduce the heat to low and cook for 2 minutes, continuing to stir. Take it off heat and let sit for a few before mixing in the vanilla. 

Pour over dry ingredients and mix quickly stir in the candy mixture until very well combined and none of the cereal is dry. Press hard into pan and use greased hand and tools to pack tightly. Spread with desired toppings of chocolate or leave plain. Then, chill in freezer for 10-15 minutes or until solid. Cut bars into desired sizes and wrap with plastic wrap if not eaten immediately. Store in cool area or fridge, and keep out of direct sunlight to prevent chocolate melting.

Now, for the step-by-step:

Be sure to have a spoon ready after you've mixed the dry ingredients, and insure that they are completely mixed. You do not want to be stuck with a rapidly-hardening candy mixture and partially mixed cereal. Not a good combination, no pun intended. 

Plop all your sugars, butter, and honey into a nice medium saucepan and heat up until beautifully bubble and golden like this:

Next you'll cook it on low for 2 minutes, stirring CONSANTLY. This mixture can very easily burn so we'll have no uneven heating! Pour this into your pre-stirred dry ingredients, and stir that even more then before! This must be done quickly and smoothly, getting all the stuff stuck on the bottom into the common horde. 

Continue by dumping this mess into a pre-greased pan, ready to go and be of use. Make sure to not let any flyaways cake your counter with candy.

Grease your hands and tools and press down with all your might, first in the middle then the sides to prevent it sliding up. Once packed to the fullest, it should look like this:

 Feel free to at this point, top it with chocolate, sprinkles, mini chocolate chips, and whatever else you think of. Just remember to match the flavors well!

Cool in the freezer until relatively solid, and then pull out a cut with the sharpest knife or pizza cutter you own. When coated with chocolate, you won't get exact lines, so just let it crack were it wants to. The bottom will be crumbly if it wasn't mixed enough or had incorrect measurements. 

The Granola Bar Wrap:

We've had so much fun popping these into the pocket of our sweatshirts, running out into adventure, and enjoying a snack that actually fills us up and satisfies the ominous sweet tooth. This is definitely one of my favorite recipes, as is most of the ones I post on my blog.