My original bars, Monster Granola Bars, are one of the most well-loved recipes on my website. I decided to come up with another tasty version, enter Trail Mix Granola Bars. These bars are packed with nuts, chocolate and dried fruit <like your favorite trail mix snack>.
As endurance athletes, or anyone trying to better their nutrition habits, snacks are a wonderful resource to help fuel our bodies and keep us satiated in between meals. These bars will do just that. They pack carbs, fiber, healthy fats, protein & a hint of sweet for the perfect, balanced snack.
Feel free to play around with the add-ins – dried fruit <cranberries, raisins, dried tart cherries>, nuts <pistachios, peanuts, walnuts, almonds> and chocolate <milk or dark chocolate, chips or chunks, dare I say m&ms?> Anything goes here!
Trail Mix Granola Bars
Ingredients
- ½ cup peanut butter
- ½ cup honey
- ¼ cup avocado oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup white whole wheat flour
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1½ cups oats
- ½ cup nuts
- ½ cup dried fruit
- ¼ cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.Grab a 8x8 inch pan and line with parchment paper. Use a large piece that hangs out of the sides of the pan, like a sling, to pull out the bars after baking. Or, grease your pan well.
- In a medium bowl, combine peanut butter honey, oil & vanilla. Mix well.Add flour, baking soda, salt & oats. Mix well.
- Pick your favorite nuts, dried fruit & chocolate chips (these have pecans, pistachios, dried cherries & dark chocolate chips). Mix them in.Press dough firmly into the pan.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes or until the center looks cooked & edges are brown.Allow to cool completely before removing from pan or they will crumble.Store in the refrigerator to harden. The more goodies we pack into them, the crumblier they are. If you hate crumble, add less nuts, dried fruit & chocolate chips.
My husband and I LOVE these bars. The bars are so delicious. I used pecans, almond slivers and walnuts in the bars and dried cranberries. I won’t bother to store any of the bars in the freezer because they won’t last too long! Thanks for the great recipe.
My family keeps eating these on me, even though I need them for my training runs as a snack throughout the day! We prefer smaller berries in these, and add in Reeses Peanut Butter chips as well to the mix. They stay in the fridge, and are gone before the weekend 😉