In the summer, no-bake recipes are always a hit! Who wants to heat up the house with the oven? And that adds to the bill for the air conditioning – so it’s not too thrifty. When it’s hot I like to use my slow cooker, or make a main dish salad, or whip up stove-top and no-bake recipes.
I found this recipe for no-bake granola bars, which turned out decent! I made some crazy substitutions along the way because I was out of a few things {hey – it’s thrifty to improvise; right?} so I do recommend following the original recipe!
- This is what I used instead of rice crispies that I didn’t have. What kind of parent buys a kid Cocoa Dyno-Bites? oops… And yes I did get the all natural cereal for 98 cents at a discount store – woot!
Dry ingredients mixed together.
- Done “cooking” and pressed into pan.
No-Bake Granola Bars
2 1/2 cups crisp rice cereal (I used what I had, but it didn’t turn out as well)
2 cups quick oats
1/2 cup raisins ( I used craisins but dried currants work well too)
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed (I used dark brown sugar)
1/2 cup light corn syrup*
1/2 cup peanut butter (I used organic; also think almond butter would be good)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips
* I did use corn syrup since I had some sitting in my cupboard. I’m sure you could come up with a great substitution for this – honey? Maple syrup? But if you do use the corn syrup – they are not all created equal! I happened to look at the ingredients on the 2 bottles I had. Karo: corn syrup, salt, vanilla. Betty Crocker: corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, water, salt, vanilla. Sorry Betty – out you go.
In large bowl, combine rice crispies, quick oats, and raisins; set aside. In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring brown sugar and corn syrup to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add peanut butter and vanilla extract. Stir until blended. Immediately pour over cereal mixture and stir until mixture is well coated. Let stand for 8-10 minutes and stir in chocolate chips. Press mixture firmly into 9×13 pan. Allow to cool completely before cutting into bars. Keep covered or cut bars and wrap individually.
- The finished product! Yum!
I thought these turned out good, but they would be better if I had followed original instructions, I think! I’ll make some more with the right ingredients and then I’ll try some substitutions for corn syrup.
Do you have a favorite granola bar recipe? Any substitution or variation ideas for the recipe?
Have a cool no-bake day friends!
Lisa 
Images source: Lisa @ Stop and Smell the Chocolates
This post is linked to:
~ Things I Love Thursday at The Diaper Diaries.
~ Chic & Crafty at The Frugal Girls.
~ I’m Lovin’ It at TidyMom.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I typically make the granola bars that Laura makes at Heavenly Homemakers. http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/homemade-chewy-granola-bars-without-corn-syrup She does use honey and coconut oil. You could easily adapt the two recipes together if you didn’t want to use the corn syrup. Thanks for posting that recipe. I love granola bars. What a great snack!
That sounds like a great idea! Thanks for the link! They do come in handy as a quick breakfast too.
Well the recipe I have on my cooking blog are actually baked ones but they do use honey and molasses, so I wonder if you could substitute those for this recipe.
Here’s the link to mine just in case you get a wild hair and want to use the oven. LOL! http://cookingkim.blogspot.com/2008/09/granola-bars.html
I don’t know – bake something? Now you’re really asking a lot – LOL! Thanks for the sub ideas and the link my friend!
Hi! I saw this recipe and would love to try it but need to know how many servings does it make? I am on Weight Watchers and need to know this info to calculate how many “points plus” points it is. I may have to tweak it but I guess that is what recipes are for right? Thanks for the recipe!
The number of servings is really up to you as you can cut the bars any size you want. The mixture is pressed into a 9×13 pan. If you cut narrow rectangle bars, you could get 18-20, but if you go with squares, you’d have even more. You could figure out the points for the whole pan and then determine how many pieces you want to get by how many points per piece you want.
{ 1 trackback }