Meatless Monday: Chewy Granola Bars

Does anyone else dread Sunday nights? Fridays are glorious and Saturdays are the best, but Sunday night... boo. Then to make Mondays even worse I usually stay up too late Sunday night because I know as soon as I go sleep it will be Monday and then I will be at work.... double boo. The fact that the only TV shows we watch religiously are on Sunday nights help to make it another awesome weekend night. Is anyone else watching the Killing? We are addicted to it, it's like a good book, and if it was a book I would have had to finish it before ever putting it down! The twists! Mad Men has been dissapointing this season but then we get the Next Food Network Star! We were in a really good habit for a while of working out while watching all our crazy amount of TV on Sunday night but yesterday we just chilled, ate dinner and popcorn and did some light yoga (from Chad's class) to help my baby back.

I made these granola bars for the Hawaii trip simply because I had everything needed to make them. While crunchy granola bars are delicious there is something about the soft, chewy, Quaker granola bars that are amazing. Probably because they remind me of candy bars. Nothing wrong there! I made these expecting them to be ok at best, but they are great!!! You can mix up the flavors any way you want depending on what you have on hand or what you're craving. My last batch just ended up being a "dump everything that's still hanging out" into them thing. My first batch were s'more flavor :) YUM

Chewy Smores Granola Bars

Ingredients:

• 4 T Butter
• 1/4 C Brown Sugar
• 1/4 C Honey
• 1 C Rice Krispies
• 1/4 C Chocolate Chips
• 1/2 C mini marshmallows
• 2 C Plain Granola

Directions:

1. Combine the butter and brown sugar over medium heat until the butter melts. Bring it to a boil and then simmer until all of the sugar has dissolved.

2. Add in the granola and Rice Krispies and mix well. At this point you can really mix in whatever you want. For the smores version I mixed in the marshmallows. Spread out your mixture into a 9x9 pan, or whatever pan you want to use! Sprinkle the chocolate chips over top and gently press them into the granola. Let the bars sit for 15-20 minutes before cutting.

These tasted great no matter what I threw in them, PB chips, raisins, almonds, coconut! Nutella would be yummy swirled in there as well :)