Decadent Granola Bars |

Well my goodness, the winter light has already started to sink me down into snoozy mode. I am wearing fleece socks, making lots of tea, cozying up with scarves. Today the sun is shining but the air is crisp, this is my favourite type of weather. Our office is also crazily hot when you first enter it and then it cools off as you sit around on your tuchus all day, so it gives me a chance to warm up from my walk in and then cool off as the day grows longer.

Oh, one of our projects just went live! The Last Hunt is a gorgeous interactive story experience that is available as a free app for your tablet devices (iPad and Android). You can also view it online in a browser here (also click there for a link to download the app). The story is described below:

“Equal parts tenderness, brutality, love and death, The Last Hunt dives deep into the motivations that led Montreal photographer Alex Hobbs to photograph his grandfather’s last hunting expedition, exposing both the strength of family bonds, and the implicit spirituality within the endlessly pragmatic act of hunting.”

So, turn your sound on, and go check it out.

This recipe is another NotCrocker Mom specialty. These granola bars are so delicious and adaptable that it is hard to find someone who doesn’t like them. They are easy to throw together and cut nicely for legitimate looking granola bars. Add in your favourite nuts, chocolates, seeds, dried fruit, coconut, etc. to really make something special. My favourite is chocolate chip with coconut. I’ve included two simple adaptations below for you to try, one is Chocolate Chip and Walnuts, the other is 4C (Toasted Coconut Shredded Coconut Chocolate Chocolate Chip).

My sister and I held a booth at an arts and craft show, selling our handmade cards. We decided to sell some granola bars too but wanted to offer people samples because… who buys granola bars at an arts show. Well, we were clearly too generous with the samples because people kept cruising our booth for sample upon sample working us through a number of bars that we could’ve sold!

Mom’s Granola Bars

INGREDIENTS

1 cup packed brown sugar
2/3 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup corn syrup (can use honey here as well, though it will have a distinct honey taste)
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups quick-cooking rolled oats
1/3 cup wheat germ
1 cup choc. chips, 1 cup coconut, 1 cup nuts, or anything else you want to put in (For the Chocolate Chip Walnut version I used 1 cup chocolate chips and 1 cup of chopped walnuts. For the 4C version, I used 1 cup of toasted flake coconut, 2/3 cup shredded coconut, 1/2 cup cocoa powder, and 3/4 cup chocolate chips)

DIRECTIONS

Heat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 9- x 13-inch pan, set aside.
In a large bowl, combine brown sugar, peanut butter, corn syrup, butter, and vanilla. Beat until smooth.
Stir in oats and wheat germ, mix well to combine.
Add in any mixins you desire and stir until evenly distributed.
Press the mixtures into your prepared pan, smoothing the top.
Bake for 20-30 minutes until the top is just golden. Cool completely before cutting. Store either in the pan, covered with plastic wrap, or cut individual bars and wrap to store.