Cathy's Chronicle: Recipes with Oats - Nutella Granola, Peanut Butter Cheerios Granola, and Chocolate Chip Granola

I am a huge fan of granola. I eat granola pretty much every day. And up until now, I have been buying it. It really has been bugging me to do this, because I know that I can make it myself and it is cheaper and I know exactly what goes in it. So guess what I decided to do?

I used to take a Snickers bar in the car as a snack...
Now I take granola.

This weekend I made 3 granola recipes using oats. I managed to finish this task in one hour, and that was with a 5 year old "helping" me. :)

Making granola and granola bars with oats is actually pretty easy. You mix the dry ingredients (oats, chia seeds, nuts, whatever else) in one bowl and then I would use a 2 cup glass measuring cup for the wet ingredients (honey, peanut butter, Nutella, oil) which I would then microwave to melt. After melting, pour over the dry ingredients, mix, and pop in the oven.

All of these recipes I found from bloggers on Pinterest. I will give credit to all as I followed their recipes, in some cases making tweaks due to being low on ingredients or in a rush and just plain old messing up the order of events. Regardless, everything came out fantastic and I am a granola maker.

Here is the final output of my granola fun!

Recipe #1: Cheerios Granola

Dry ingredients: 3 cups oats, 2 cups Cheerios (I used multigrain), 1/2 tsp. cinnamon.
Wet ingredients: 1/2 cup honey, 1/2 cup peanut butter (melt and pour over the dry).
I spread the mixture on parchment paper on a rimmed baking sheet.
I baked at 250F for 30 minutes and stirred it at the 15 minute mark.

I must give credit to Kristine's Kitchen Blog for this recipe!

Once they came out of the oven, sweet and crunchy.

Perfect to pop into a Tupperware to take on a road trip.

Recipe #2: Nutella Granola

Dry ingredients: 2.5 cups oats, 1/2 cup chopped pecans (original recipe called for hazelnuts).
Wet ingredients: 1/4 cup Nutella, 2 tbsp honey, 2 tbsp canola oil (melt and pour over the dry).
Add a pinch of salt to the mix.
I then added 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips - whoops, the recipe says to add it after cooled...oh well...
Spread the mix on parchment paper on a rimmed baking sheet.
I baked at 325F for 30 minutes and stirred it at the 15 minute mark.

I must give credit to Julie's Eats and Treats for the original recipe! You can read Julie's recipe and see which way you would like to make yours.

The taste reminds me of Cocoa Krispies!

I ate so much of this that I made my husband send the rest to a friend.
Otherwise I would have eaten it all!

Recipe #3 Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

Dry ingredients: 4 cups oats, 2 tbsp chia seeds, 1/2 cup chopped pecans.
Wet ingredients: 3/4 cup peanut butter, 1/2 cup honey (melt and pour over the dry)
Add chocolate chips - I really have no idea how much I added - I just dumped the remainder of my semi sweet bag of chocolate chips into the mixture.
Spread into a 9 X 13 baking pan.
I baked at 350F for 30 minutes. Cool and cut into squares. What a great way to replace those name brand bars - cheaper, healthier, and you know what went in your food!

Thanks to Jessica for this recipe from How Sweet it is!