Homemade granola bar recipe?

[razz]

Since I first bought some granola bars over the years, I have complained that they are overly sweet, rather tasteless and not very nutritious generally as well as pricey.
I want to make some good homemade ones but the one recipe that I tried made with condensed milk was too crumbly. I am going to try another but thought that some of you may have a recipe that works well for you.

Most recipes seem to require 3 cups of quick oatmeal, 1 cup nuts and dried fruit mixture each. What can I add to make the bars stick together?
I even found one that requires no baking; simply mix and freeze to set and then store in fridge that I am going to try today.

[Float On]

http://feastsforallseasons.com/quinoa-granola-bars/ This is one I want to try, looks good. It can use peanut or almond butter plus honey. Those will help with the 'stick together' problem.

[new2oregon]

That recipe looks like a good one, the eggs, honey and peanut butter should hold it together nice. some places you can buy from the bulk containers so you could buy just the amount you need of the quinoa, flax, etc.

[frugal-one]

http://feastsforallseasons.com/quinoa-granola-bars/ This is one I want to try, looks good. It can use peanut or almond butter plus honey. Those will help with the 'stick together' problem.

Looks interesting to me too but I do have a few questions. I have not cooked with quinoa so is raw the stuff you find in the bulk bins at the health food store? Also, never heard of hemp hearts?????

[Rosemary]

If you just want a portable snack, take a small container or bag and fill it with mixed nuts/seeds and dried fruit. Add coconut, chocolate chips, or homemade granola if desired. Easy, no cooking, stores without refrigeration.

If you actually want bars and want them less sweet, rice syrup has less sweetness than honey or maple syrup, but note that it can have high levels of arsenic due to the ability of rice to remove arsenic from soils. You'd have to research this more if it is a concern to you. Lundberg rice has info on their web page about their products. Apple or orange juice concentrate might also work as part of the 'glue.' Another thing to try might be dried fruit, soaked and then pureed in a minimum of water.

I used to think about making granola bars but when I tried they were always disappointing and I worried about storage. I don't want to have to bake something every few days. Now I just keep a container of my homemade trail mix in my backpack and purse and it's always ready to go.

By the way, hemp hearts are also called hemp seed or hemp seed kernels. You can buy them at natural foods stores or Amazon and they seem pricey but a bag goes a long, long way. They are higher in omega-3 fats than most seeds/nuts and are very small in size as well as softer than most seeds, so they will enable a recipe like this to bind more than if using all larger nuts/seeds.

And yes, raw quinoa is uncooked quinoa, the type you normally buy in bulk or in a bag at the store. But it usually needs to be rinsed before cooking, unless the bag says "pre-rinsed," to remove the bitter saponin coating - something to be aware of if you're not familiar with quinoa. Rinse in a fine-mesh strainer, very thoroughly.

[razz]

I found some low-sugar granola mix at the Bulk Barn, added the condensed milk, 2 eggs beaten and enough water to make it stick together adding some almonds and baked until golden brown in a 9x13 pan. They were just right, not too sweet but satisfying to eat.
That combination was the result of looking at a whole range of recipes and finding what they had in common and what was different.

[frugal-one]

Just got this book from the library and it has a number of recipes I plan on trying.

http://www.linkcat.info/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=167205