Peanut Free Granola Bar Recipe!

Perfect consistency: doesn’t fall apart but isn’t crunchy!

As most of you know from life or from my previous posts, our 7 year old, J, has a peanut allergy that is classified as “moderate-to-severe.”

For the Cap-Rast blood test.

< .035 Class 0 – Below detection
0.35 – 0.69 Class 1 – Low
0.70 – 3.49 Class 2 – Moderate
3.50 – 17.49 Class 3 – High
17.50 – 49 Class 4 – Very High
50 – 99 Class 5 – Very High
> – 100 Class 6 – Very High

Basically, if he eats peanut products his lips and mouth swell, and if his skin comes in direct contact with peanuts he develops hives, but it has always been manageable with Benadryl.

It doesn’t make that big of a difference in our lives now that he’s homeschooled, but it did mean a huge shift for us in our eating habits to make sure he’s safe.

Unfortunately, since a lot of snacks are made in a facility that processes peanuts, he also misses out on some of my favorite goodies…and so do I, unless he’s in bed. More than snacks, he’s also missing out on healthy alternatives like trail mix, cashews, granola bars, and a whole host of other things. So, any time a peanut-free recipe surfaces, we give it a try. This is our favorite so far.

Original Recipe here: http://www.donteatnuts.com/homemade-peanut-free-granola-bars

Ingredients

2	Cup	Rolled Oats
3⁄4	Cup	Brown Sugar
1	Pinch	cinnamon
1	Cup	All Purpose Flour
3⁄4	Cup	dried cranberries or semi-sweet chocolate chip ((or both))
1	Pinch	salt
1⁄2	Cup	honey
1		Egg (beaten)
1⁄2	Cup	vegetable oil
1	Teaspoon	vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease a 9×13 inch baking pan.
In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients such as the, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, flour, cranberries, and salt.
Make a well in the center, and pour in the honey, egg, oil and vanilla.
Fold in the chocolate chips after all is mixed.  Mix well using your hands.
Pat the mixture evenly into the prepared pan.

Into the oven

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the bars begin to golden at the edges. Cool for 5 minutes, then cut into bars while still warm. Do not allow the bars to cool completely before cutting, or they will be too hard to cut.

*Notice that my recipe calls for 1/2 the original amount of vanilla (personal preference) and a significantly shorter cook time (which could just be my oven).

Bonus!

I took 1/2 of the batch and reserved them for breakfast, but the rest I made into super sweet snacks! (Think Kudos bars).

I simply lined a plate with granola bars

and added Magic Shell!

30 minutes in the fridge and they were perfect. I stored these in the fridge, but I was surprised that they actually got eaten up slower than the plain version. (Cub devoured one every day for breakfast).

I hope you enjoy them too!

Next time, I hope to make a crunchy version by incorporating some corn syrup on the oats. I’ll let you know how that experiment works out.