Home made chewy granola bars!

So this was a fun Pinterest project. I had repinned a recipe some time ago and it popped into my head today at the grocery store. I used the basic quantities in her recipe but mixed it up for something that would suit my tastes better. You always start out with 3 cups of your base dry ingredient. In this case, I used quick oats. You can use differing ratios of oats with your favorite cereal. If you really like corn pops, use all corn pops. If you want variety in texture, half oats and half cereal. Whatever combination appeals to you will work. I am thinking maybe Life cereal would be good too. To your 3 cups of whatever, you add, well, whatever you like. I went nuts, literally. I used a handful each of sliced almonds, chopped pecans and dry roasted sunflower seeds. Then I added a generous handful of chopped Craisins and about the same amount of chopped dates because I love that combination. Any soft dried fruit will be fine. You can add coconut flakes, chocolate chips (I did ;), gummy bears!, just let your imagination run wild. The combinations are endless! So once you dump all your dry stuff in a big bowl, mix it together and set aside until you have your binder cooked.
The binder is a syrup that holds all these delicious bits together. If you really went hog wild, increase the amounts of binder ingredients so your chewy granola bars will be bars and not chunks. Unless of course you like chunks. Who am I to say? So you put 1/4 cup butter (NOT margarine) in a medium sauce pan. Add 1/3 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup honey, maple syrup, agave nectar, any pure natural syrup. I did one batch with the basic honey, butter and brown sugar. I did a second batch using agave nectar. You will bring the mix to a low boil and it will start to foam. If you've made fudge, you are familiar with this. Let it boil and be foaming for two minutes then remove from heat, add a teaspoon of vanilla and stir well. In the batch that I made with agave nectar, I added a 1/3 cup of natural peanut butter after I removed it from the heat, then added the vanilla. You can be really creative with what you use in the syrup as well. That's what makes this fun. You don't need to let it cool but you do need to stabilize your bowl with a towel as you will be stirring everything together as you drizzle the syrup over you dry ingredients. Go slow. Do NOT dump the whole pot into the bowl and expect it to disperse evenly because the cereal and oats will start to absorb it immediately and it won't go well from there on out. So you slowly drizzle your hot syrup over your dry stuff, stirring to make sure everything gets a good coating. Just a heads up: don't add your chocolate chips now nor anything else that can melt from the intense heat. Sprinkle them over the mix after you've panned it and press them in . That leads me to the next step. You can choose your pan based on how thick you want your bars. It's all preference. I like mine just about the thickness of the store bought ones so I used my 9"x11" pan. Dump your mixture into the pan, no greasing needed, and firmly press everything evenly into the bottom of the pan. Let it set for 20-30 minutes then turn out, cut and store in an air tight container. You can wrap each one individually if your packing them to go or giving them as a gift. These came out so incredibly delicious.
I had a really hectic week being my first back to work. My schedule was horribly all over the place. I would have love, love, loved something that I could grab quick and eat during my drive into the city. Alas, I went hungry if I didn't have enough time to make something. I'm not much for mornings so I sit around with my coffee too long, take too long on my hair, makeup and dressing, then end up running behind. I much prefer to wake up on my own and be lazy in the morning for a couple hours. I don't mind late nights at all. With hubby's schedule, we are up 'til 1 or 2 in the morning most nights. That seems to suit me well.
So have fun whipping up different combinations of these treats. You can even add things like chia, flax or wheat germ powder to kick up the nutrition. You can keep your syrup really simple and be careful with what you add for dry ingredients to make a lower fat, low sugar alternative. They were fun and quick to make and I am enjoying one right now :)

The dry ingredients...

The boil...

The finished bars!

As you can see, I had to taste asap to make sure they weren't icky.

Have you ever wondered...

I know I'm not alone in this. I log onto Pinterest and start browsing random categories only to find these pins that tout magic callous removal using Listerine and shaving cream,  make your own Mod Podge with Elmers Glue, miracle stain remover, home made dishwasher detergent, etc. As I'm reading, I'm thinking "What kind of an idle, warped mind would dream this up and apply it to that?" I know there are people out there with way too much time on their hands who can't seem to fill it with something "productive". I put that in quotes for the simple reason that productivity is subjective, depending on who you talk to. And you know I have to try everything that sounds like it might work, if there's even the minutest amount of logic to it. 90% of the time, it doesn't work as stated but I love to go back and read the repins where people say they did it and it was AMAZING! I haven't figured out if there are multiple dimensions of reality in existence but I'm sure they are full of crap.
Here is my first case in point: Smear shaving cream (no one ever says what kind, brand, version for obvious reasons) all over your feet then soak two cloths in a 50/50 mix of Listerine and hot water and wrap your feet for 30 minutes. When you take the cloths off, you are supposed to be able to simply rub all the callouses off. There is even a word of caution on one pin that says if you follow this procedure more than once a week, it will leave you feet sore and raw. LOL! Wouldn't it actually have to do something tangible first? This is my I had to try it. The first reason is that shaving cream has skin softening properties regardless of the brand you choose. So does chicken gravy but I wouldn't soak my feet in it. Anything semi-liquid will "soften the skin" because it's wet. Anyway, reason number 2 is that podiatrists have recommended Listerine for foot odor problems for decades. It's antibacterial ingredients reduce the problems that cause stinky feet in the first place. My result was, as I'm sure you already know, minimal change. There are two things that did end up being a benefit though: the callouses were deeply softened so I got out my PedEgg and scraped off what I could remove. Mind you, again, a 30 minute soak in anything, chicken gravy included, would provide the same benefit. The other benefit was incredibly cool and minty smelling feet which I thoroughly enjoyed for a full day. I was having a bit of an odor problem from wearing actual shoes after 6 months of flip flops almost daily. Odor issue solved!
So last winter, I was rummaging through clothes that I haven't worn to decide what to toss, donate or get out and wear when I came across several white or light shirts that had armpit stains from wearing deodorant.  I hadn't been wearing them because I couldn't get the stains out. So back to Pinterest I went in search of a recipe to remove the stains and reclaim the clothing. I tried several. None of them worked. Borax, washing soda and peroxide paste did nothing. Overnight pretreatment with Dawn dishwashing liquid and peroxide did nothing. Overnight soak in dishwasher powdered detergent, Dawn and peroxide did nothing. Overnight soak in hot water and bleach made the fabric fragile and I ended up throwing the items out. Either I have armpit stains of steel or the concoctions just don't work. I am inclined to go with the latter.
So then there is the home made Mod Podge using Elmer's Glue and water. I had a seriously funny feeling that this would be sticky when dry and not protect the finish at all and I wasn't wrong. I don't recommend you do this on anything of importance. Period. I also tried the home made alcohol inks which didn't work on anything that I would do but I tried it because I wanted to try doing alcohol ink stained glass. I just broke down and bought the damn commercial alcohol in which actually did work as expected. Making your own with Rit dye and 91% isopropyl alcohol ends up being expensive unless you already have multiple colors of dye just laying around. For what it cost me, I could have bought the mega selection of the real deal. And I wouldn't have wasted money on dyes that I will never use. Next time I will skip the stain removal pins and go straight for the dye to cover the stains. Yep, you guessed it. This one peeved me a little because I fell for it believing the testimonials that stated this is exactly the same as the commercial product. Sometimes people just suck. And they already know it. They have no real life friends so they resort to duping complete strangers online.
Now the dishwasher detergent was a believable idea.  I make my own laundry detergent and love it. I use the original Dawn blue dishwasher detergent for all kinds of household "magic" and it doesn't let me down ever. I use it to pretreat fresh stains, I mix it with vinegar to clean my shower, bathtub and bathroom sinks, it cleans my jewelry to a sparkling shine when I add a few drops to super hot water and, of course, it cleans my dishes, pots and pans beautifully. I use baking soda, vinegar, borax and washing soda for lots of things too so when I read the ingredients, I thought I had another inexpensive winner. Wrong again. It didn't clean my dishes, smelled terrible when my dishwasher was running and took many, many cycles to eliminate from my brand new dishwasher. On top of that, I now have spots on the stainless steel interior that feel like pits in the finish. They should at least warn you that if you have a stainless steel interior, don't use this.
Now for my favorite Pinterest home made, home remedy, super miracle solution. Using straight peroxide as a mouth wash...If you go to the dentist regularly, talk to your hygenist about it. Have that conversation. She/he won't laugh at you but they will caution you about a few things. I've used baking soda and peroxide to brush my teeth a couple times a week for many years. No harm, no foul. The pin stated clearly that using straight peroxide twice a day as a rinse was a "secret that dentists don't want you to know about". Let me rearrange that quote for you so it's a little closer to what your dentist might want you to know, not to mention how grateful you will be to know this. The person who started this pin with the first post was a malicious liar. The quote should read "The secret that you won't want to admit to your dentist". Hydrogen peroxide reacts with oxygen, causes your taste buds to swell up and turn black. When I say black, I mean coal black. It's a condition known as black tongue and it's gross, destroys your ability to taste anything, looks horrible and doesn't just go away when you stop using peroxide as a rinse. It does nothing to whiten your teeth, as promised. It simply doesn't stay on your teeth long enough to do anything. The whiteners dentist sell are in a gel form and the gel is held in place with mouth trays so it can do what it's intended to do. People who overuse or incorrectly use teeth whitening gels can suffer from black tongue.
Of all the bogus pins I've talked about in this post, there is only one that I'd recommend even though it doesn't work like the pin assures it will. The shaving cream/Listerine combination. The stipulation I will add is that you go to a discount store or dollar store to buy cheap shaving cream and knock off Listerine. You don't need a brand name to accomplish the same end result. Get out your PedEgg and foot file to finish the job. Or...you could just stop by your local Sally Beauty Supply and pick up a bottle of Be Natural callous eliminator. It's expensive but a bottle will last you an eternity. Don't be afraid of it. It's strong medicine but it will do the trick lickity split. Keep a pan of warm water handy to wash it off after it's set 3-5 minutes. A foot file with a good amount of grit will remove any callouses that have been treated. Remember to moisturize well twice a day if you use this. Here is the bottle you'll be looking for.

Happy pinning and happy Cinco d'Mayo!