TheDreamyMom: Quick 'n Easy Home-made Granola Bars

Today, my 10 year old big boss decided to make healthy snacks for himself, and for his not-so-little-anymore-brother.

I supervised the whole process from where he looked up several different youtube videos on healthy snack preps, to finally nailing down his recipe (after I vetoed on butter, and refined or brown sugar, and no baking to make it a healthier and easier choice for my time-pressed mommy friends). Two many cooks did not spoil the granola bar. We had visitors at home, and they were amazed that kids made this awesome treat in under 30 minutes.

2 cups regular oats (dry roast/toast it lightly in a pan - make sure it doesnt burn!! I supervised this part. We added 1/2 cup at a time and roasted it in medium for a minute or so on hard-bottomed stainless steel pan. Transferrd it into a bowl before adding the next 1/2 cup).

25-30 regular sized dates pitted and made to a fine paste in food processor (without adding any water. I had date paste that I bought from indian store, so I used 1/4th of the 1kg packet. 10 pitted dates make approximately 100gms, so 250 grams is around 25 dates).

3 tablespoons of honey (add one more if u want more sweet or stickiness)

2-3 tablespoons of peeled thinly sliced almonds or coarsely ground (chunky) peanut butter

Optional - 3-4 cubes of trader joe 72% cacao dark chocolate - grate it ( kids and I are big time chocolate lovers, so they put chocolate or cocoa powder into most of the goodies they bake)

Use your hand to mix in all the above ingredients in a large bowl until it forms a big sticky mass.

Take an 11x7 inch stainless steel baking tray, line it with aluminium foil covering the base and all four sides of the tray, before transfering the mixture into it.

Press the mixture it with a flat bottomed stainless steel spatula or use the base of small recatangle snack boxes to press the mixture - this makes the surface even.

Now fold in the rest of the aluminum foil to cover the granola sheet. If not fully covered, add some foil to cover the open space (I used a seran wrap instead of foil).

Now turn the granola sheet upside down and put it back in the tray. Keep the tray in the freezer for 20 minutes.

Take it out, and cut into desired shapes using a sharp knife, or large pizza cutter.

Tasty granola bars are ready for kids and adults to enjoy!