5 Ingredient Granola Bars

Happy Saturday!! It is an absolutely gorgeous day here and I cannot wait to get outside! I'm also stoked for today because it is our second BBG meet up and I'm leading the workout! I'm definitely nervous because I've never lead so many people, but the girls are fantastic and I know they will make my nerves disappear! 

After the workout we are going to have a potluck and some of the dishes the girls are bringing sound AMAZING! I'm excited for the workout, but I think I may be more excited for the food (story of my life) haha. I whipped up some vegan+GF chocolate banana bread muffins yesterday (I'll share the recipe next week) and this morning I made some granola bars. I used to eat so many granola bars as a kid, but there's so many fake ingredients that I now shutter. Granola bars are so easy to make that I'm not sure why I didn't do it sooner! All you need is 5 ingredients and 25 minutes- that's it! 

Granola Bars

• 2 cups GF oats
• 2 Tablespoons ground flaxseed
• 1/2 cup nut butter of choice (I used smooth peanut butter)
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/4 cup chocolate chips, divided

Preheat oven to 350F degrees and line a 8x8 pan with tinfoil or spray with coconut oil. 

In a mixing bowl combine oats, flax seed, and 2 Tablespoons of chocolate chips.

In a separate microwave safe bowl combine nut butter and honey and microwave for 30 seconds. Stir nut butter and honey together if the nut butter is still very thick and not partly liquid microwave for an additional 15 seconds and stir again. 

Pour nut butter/honey combo over dry ingredients and stir. Make sure all dry ingredients are coated with liquid- the chocolate chips will get partly melted with the liquid ingredients, but that's ok! It spread the chocolate throughout more of the dough. 

Scoop oat mixture into lined 8x8 pan and using your hands or a spoon press down the mixture until it is evenly distributed throughout the pan. 

Bake granola bars at 350F degrees for 15-20 minutes. The bars will be done with the edges have darkened and the oats are golden in color- it took about 18 minutes in my oven. 

Allow granola bars to cool before cutting into 12 bars. Store in airtight container on counter for 1 week or freeze the bars for up to 6 months. 

If you make these granola bars take a picture, tag me on instagram, and use the hashtag #thesimplelife I'd love to see your creations! Don't forget to like my new Facebook page!