I absolutely love Nature Valley granola bars. They are crunchy goodness. But it seems every time I try to make crunchy granola bars, they fall apart almost immediately upon cutting and I am left with granola. If I had wanted granola I would have made granola!
Enter HalfBakedHarvest’s recipe. I think the simple missing ingredient was using the bottom of a cup measure to REALLY press down hard on the mixture before putting it into the oven. You can click on the link above for her recipe – I only changed two things based with what I had on hand – I used 1 cup of Cheerios and I subbed agave nectar for the honey. Oh, and I forgot I added 2 tablespoons of flax seed and 1/4 cup of sunflower seeds.
I actually used my hands to make sure every piece was covered in the peanut butter/agave nectar mixture. The parchment paper is key too – makes it super easy to get it out of the pan to cool before cutting.
So far it looks good!
After cutting?? Hardly any crumbs!!
Finally, a granola bar that stays together!! I will note that mine were a tad salty – I shelled my own peanuts, so if your peanuts are really salty, you can leave out the salt in the recipe. Still delicious – I need to make some more soon!
So we are flying by the seat of our pants this week food wise. I knew we had enough stuff in the house that I didn’t need to grocery shop – should be an interesting week!
Breakfast was blueberry Chobani pancakes. I was super busy at work all day so I just took a quick pick with my iPhone.
I decided to do the StairMaster at lunch. Tony and I signed up for Netflix because they were having a free month special. I watched a movie, but it wasn’t very good, but it made the time go by fast! I ended up doing 100 flights of stairs in 35 minutes, or 2.07 miles.
So yesterday was all about the sausage! I bought these last weekend.
The package had me at jalapeno! I decided to make a smoked sausage panini – I used store bought bread, baby spinach, horseradish mustard and a small slice of cheese with the sausage. My boss loved this!
We split a 1 ounce bag of pretzels and had oranges, strawberries and grapes on the side. #winning!
So then I get home and Tony asked what was for dinner. I start to mention “I have smoked sausage” and he said “put cheese on mine please.”
So this time I made a smoked sausage dog with sauerkraut on the bottom, the sausage, topped with a bit of blue cheese and hot giardiniera. I had a cooked baked potato in the fridge so those because some potato fries, with cucumbers and ranch dressing for dipping.
I think I have yogurt for breakfast parfaits this morning, and I think I am going to throw all the ingredients into a bag to make smoked sausage sauerkraut soup for lunch. I figure it can cook while I work! 
Question of the Day: Sauerkraut fan or not? I can eat it out of a can cold, but Tony thinks it tastes like ass.
Make it a great day!!
I only just discovered the wonder that is sauerkraut in the past couple of years. Now I keep a jar in the back of the fridge, for when a need a little something else to add to a sandwich, dish, or on the side with dinner. Yum!
LOVE Kraut, being the good German girl that I am. Tend to have it more in the summer on brats, but definitely love it.
I HATE sauerkraut out of the can, but I love it if it’s homemade or the fancy sort in a nice restaurant, so I think it’s one of those foods that I’m cool with but only if it’s really good. 🙂
I also love watching movies/TV at the gym! I usually watch on Hulu…and I have to say, bad shows are almost better because they take less brain energy. 🙂
I love sauerkraut! I’m not sure I can eat it right out of the can, but I do love the stuff. I’m going to have to try that recipe for Nature Valley Granola bars. We buy the huge box of them at BJ’s because my husband loves them so much!
This looks so yummy and amazingly nutritious!
Tony needs to recomonize! Saurkraut is the bomb! I was so lucky, a coworker made homemade saurkraut with cabbage from her garden, and threw in some carrot too (from her garden) along with some caraway seeds, and gave me a small jar. So good! And we enjoyed it recently on brats–not too far from your smoked sausage!
Yay for granola bars that stay in bar form! have you tried cutting while still hot? Seems like that would help in theory, since they’d be a bit softer while hot.