Happy day after Labor Day guys!  How was your weekend?  I hope you did the opposite of labor and got to relax with your family and friends!  Canean was out of town for a couple of days and I started binge watching Friday Night Lights on Netflix, which I had no idea was going to suck me in like it did!  I also had a fabulous brunch Sunday morning with a girlfriend before picking the hubs up from the airport!  Yesterday, we lounged around, walked the dogs, and ate big juicy cheeseburgers for dinner!  Needless to say, we are both in need of some healthy for the rest of the week!  I love having snacks like my homemade nutty granola bars on hand for weeks just like these!  

They are sweet and salty, but completely good for you!  This means you can feel good about eating them when your afternoon snack attack hits.  My favorite granola bars to buy in the store are dark chocolate and sea salt KIND bars, and I figured I could make my own version that would have a similar taste!  They satisfy my sweet tooth while providing my body with good fats, omega 3's, and they cure that 3 o'clock hunger pain that strikes every day like clockwork.

With just a few ingredients, you can make any kind of granola bar that your family loves and know that there are no additives that don't need to be there!  I would however give my nutty granola bars a try because they are drizzled with dark chocolate and sea salt at the end and have cashews, pepitas, walnuts, and almonds for extra crunch!  So delicious guys! 

You and your whole family will be stoked about having these bad boys in the fridge for a on-the-go breakfast, afternoon snack, or even a healthy midnight treat!  Pinky swear.

Ingredients:

• 2 Cups of Old Fashioned Rolled Oats

• 1/4 Cup Cashews

• 1/4 Cup Almonds

• 1/4 Cup Pepitas

• 1/4 Cup of Walnuts

• 1/4 Cup of Dried Cranberries (you can sub your favorite dried fruit here)

• 1/8 Cup of Flax Seed, ground

• 1/8 Cup of Chia Seeds

• 1/3 Cup of Honey

• 1/4 Cup of Coconut Oil

• 4 Oz. Good Quality Dark Chocolate, atleast 70%

• Sprinkle of Sea Salt

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

• Roughly chop nuts and add them to the rolled oats.

• Bake for 5-7 minutes until nuts and oats are slightly toasted.

• Let cool.

• While nuts and oats cook and cool, mix together cranberries, chia seeds, and flax seeds in a large bowl.

• Melt honey and coconut oil together in the microwave or on the stove top until both are combined.

• Add oats, nuts, coconut oil, and honey to the cranberrie mixture and mix thoroughly.

• Line a cake pan or a pan that is at least an inch deep with parchment paper.

• Press granola mixture into one flat layer and pack very tightly together. This is key to the bars staying together, so make sure it's packed tight!

• Refrigerate for two hours.

• Melt chocolate over a double boiler. Simply place a small glass or metal bowl over a small pan that has one inch of water at the bottom. You don't want your bowl to actually touch the water here. Place chocolate in the bowl and turn heat on medium high. Stir until chocolate has melted. Turn heat off.

• Take pan of granola bars and drizzle the chocolate over top. You can use as much or as little as you want here.

• Sprinkle with sea salt.

• Refrigerate for another hour before cutting.

• To store, keep in the refrigerator and cut as you eat the bars or wrap individually with parchment paper.

This recipe is super easy and you will be asking yourself why you've been buying granola bars instead of making them all this time!