Homemade Granola Bars

Yum - this is hands down one of my favorite recipes to make!  It's quick, easy and delicious (and healthy!)!  This recipe was passed down to my mom from Grandma Sullivan and as with a lot of Gma's recipes, it originally included lots of sugar and butter, but I've messed around with the recipe and trimmed down those ingredients to my current version.  Another thing I love about this recipe is that it's so easy to swap out ingredients so that you can make a variety of granola bars and never get sick of them!  Here's my go-to recipe, but I've included other options in parenthesis if you want to mix it up.  Enjoy :)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup ground flax seed
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans, sunflower seeds)
1/2 cup chocolate chips (or dried cranberries, craisins)
1 egg white
2 Tbs honey
~1 cup unsweetened applesauce

In a large bowl, mix together brown sugar, oats, flour, flax seed, baking powder, cinnamon.  Add chopped nuts and chocolate chips.  In a small bowl, mix together egg white, honey and 1/2 cup of applesauce and then add to the dry mixture.  With a fork (or fancier kitchen utensil) press the mix until it becomes fairly moist.  You don't want big areas with clumps of flour mixture.  Add applesauce a little at a time until you get the desired consistency.  The less dry your mix, the more gooey/chewy your bars will be.

Press mixture into a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking pan until it is evenly spread.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes.
Let cool and then cut into yummy squares :)

What's left of my last batch - they don't last long around here!