Healthy Granola bites

My sister in law showed me how to make these 

granola bars forever ago. 

I was prego and in need of a good healthy snack 

and these were perfect!

Since then I have used this recipe whenever we 

are in need of a good healthy snack. 

I made them this past week and they were a life saver!

I eat one in the morning before my workout and it keeps me going.

I was hoping Micah would like them more, but I think they are 

a little hard for him to eat haha maybe I'll make them 

even smaller next time.

First you'll need to toast your coconut.

This may be the most important step.

I'm not a huge fan of coconut, but when it 

is toasted it totally changes!! 

It makes it crunchy and sweet and delicious. 

So take your 1 1/4 cups coconut and put it in a pan

You don't need any oil or anything.

On medium heat constantly stir your coconut.

It will seems like nothing is happening for the longest time

And then all of a sudden it will start to get brown.

It can burn in a moment so keep stirring.

You may need to turn your heat down once it starts to get a little toasted so that it won't burn.

The finished product will look a little something like this

Go ahead, taste some! You'll be surprised by how different it is. 

Throw your toasted coconut in with

2 cups of oats

1/2 cup of flaxseed 

and 

1/2 cup of wheat germ

Mix those together

So we usually use chocolate chips, 

but this time I had some dried blueberries

that needed used so I did that instead

They turned out really good with blueberries!

It's pretty amazing that any made it into the granola though

cause Micah was eating them as fast as he could go

If your using dried fruit then put it in now.

If your using chocolate chips

then wait till the end.

Now dump in 2 TSP of vanilla

1 cup of Peanut butter

And stir! It will seem impossible 

to get the peanut butter 

to mix in, but believe me,

you got this.

Now comes the honey

If you heat your honey in the Microwave

for about 30 seconds or so it will

mix in much easier.

The  honey is a little tricky because if you

get too much all you will be able to taste is honey

but if you get too little the bars will fall apart.

2/3 cup worked pretty well for us.

Once your honey is mixed in your 

ready to form the balls.

You can also just put the whole mixture

into a pan and press it down till its firm.

Then you can cut it up and 

have bars instead of balls.

I wanted to try balls this time.

It was messy, but I liked how easy 

they were to store and they were just the right size 

for a little snack.

There you have it! 

I let them harden for a few hours

and then put them in zip lock bags.

The perfect healthy, yummy snack!

Healthy Granola Bites

2 Cups Old fashion oats

1 1/4 Cups Coconut 

1/2 Cup Flaxseed

1/2 Cup wheat germ

1 Cup Peanut Butter

1 Cup chocolate chips (we used dried blueberries)

2/3 Cup honey

2 TSP Vanilla 

Toast the coconut (see above for detailed instructions) mix coconut, oats, flaxseed, and wheat germ.  Add peanut butter and vanilla and mix.  Heat honey for about 30 seconds in the microwave.  Add the honey and mix.  Add chocolate chips.  Roll into balls or press into bars.