Granola Bars (no bake)

Sweet Courtney, from Courtney Marie Jewelry sent me this recipe for Granola bars. Can I just say how it's awesome that I've met so many wonderful people through this blog? Thanks so much Courtney!

When she sent the recipe, I opened the email and scanned the ingredients.

 Peanut butter, ok sub almond or Sunbutter for Diva. I ended up using unsalted, no sugar added Sunbutter, just ground up sunflower seeds.

Rolled oats. I know I don't have rolled oats. What's a girl to do? I'll find something.

Honey, we've been sick so all the honey has been used up. I have maple syrup. Awesome.

Rice Krispy cereal- boy do I have that. I have like 5 boxes of the gluten free brown rice stuff. I stocked up when I had an awesome coupon.

Marshmallows, yes, I just bought those so I could use up the cereal.

Wheatgerm- in the fridge! (I didn't use this in the end)
YAY! Let's make these! I called Piglet to help me. My kitchen is so small, I only let one helper in there at a time if I can help it. I did make quite a few changes from the original recipe which I'll post below.

This recipe can easily be made gluten free with gluten free cereal, oats, marshmallows, chocolate chips, etc. It's free of tree-nuts too!
It is sweet, so it's a great treat. 

No Bake Granola Bars

Wet ingredients

1/2 cup butter

16 ounces marshmallows

1/2 cup maple syrup

1 cup Sunbutter

 1 teaspoon vanilla paste (or extract)

Dry ingredients

5 1/2 cup krispy rice cereal 

3 1/2 cups uncooked 5 grain cereal, with flax seed

3/4 cup pumpkin seeds

Mix ins-

1 cup mini chocolate chips

Mix all the dry ingredients into a large bowl.

Melt the wet ingredients over med high heat until everything is melted and combined.

Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients. Mix well. Add the chocolate chips and mix well. My mini chips melted :(

Press into a parchment lined pan with sides. I used a 9x13 pan but if you want thinner bars use a bigger jelly roll pan.

Let cool.

Cut into bars.

Make it yours/variations

• almond butter, almonds, dried cherries, almond extract, dark chocolate
• coconut flakes, dried pineapple/mango/papaya/, white chocolate chips, coconut flakes, macadamia nuts
• dried blueberries, white chocolate, almond extract
• dried cherries, blueberries, raspberries, dark chocolate chips, almonds
• dried apples, apple pie spices, cinnamon baking chips or caramel chips
• chopped dates, nuts, cocoa powder- in the marshmallow mixture
• hold the chocolate and just go nuts with walnuts, almonds, cashews etc
• try coconut butter/manna

Original recipe 
1/2 cup butter
1 bag marshmallows
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup honey
5 1/2 cups rice cereal
3 1/2 cups oatmeal (uncooked)
1/2 cup wheatgerm
1 cup mini chocolate chips

 Do you like granola bars? What kinds do you like?