Healthy Homemade Granola Bars Recipe

These healthy homemade granola bars are soft and chewy, nut-free, loaded with seeds and grains and can be made gluten-free or vegan.

Well, we survived Zoe’s first week in school and she is absolutely loving it! She is so excited to go each day. It’s been amazing to watch her be so enthusiastic to learn new things and play with her new friends. She has adjusted just fine, and it is such a relief for us. As parents, you’re always worried about how your kids will react to big changes, and Zoe has conquered this one like a champ!

One of the new tasks for us as parents is packing her lunch box every day. We’re only into the second week, but I find it fun packing her lunch. I’m sure this novelty will wear off really quickly in the next few weeks. I hide treats for her to find and sometimes attach notes to her lunch box that are coded with drawings and letters to form a phrase that she has to decode.

Nowadays, there are limitations on lunches, with good reason. They have to be nut-free and garbage-free at Zoe’s school. Most granola bars are now made in nut-free facilities, but a lot of them are pretty basic. So, I set out to make my own recipe that was nut-free and filled with lots of healthy ingredients!

These granola bars are extremely soft and chewy and a great sweet treat. The recipe does contain sugar, but it’s a mix of cane sugar, maple syrup and honey (or more maple syrup for a vegan option). Cane sugar has not been stripped of the vitamins and minerals, like white refined sugar, and maple syrup and honey are two of the healthier sugars you can consume – and they all add great flavour!

I should note that because of the natural sugar ingredients, these bars are also on the sticky side, not dry like the packaged ones you get at the grocery store.

All of the dry ingredients in these healthy homemade granola bars are also high in nutrients, well except for the chocolate chips, but even they’re not too bad for you and you can omit them if you prefer. You can also add your favourite dried fruit (or nuts if your school/workplace allows it) for an even healthier version.

They’re a great snack to take to work for a mid-morning or mid-afternoon pick-me-up when you need a sweet fix. I’ve packed these as a snack a couple of times and rarely do I even wait until it’s break-time. If it’s sitting on my desk, I will likely eat it with my first coffee of the day.

I hope you enjoy these granola bars. We’d love to hear what you think of the recipe and if you made any additions to it.