Healthy Fruit and Grain Bars

I have never been against things like white flour, sugar, or real butter. In fact, I love them and use them quite frequently. I have, however, always been against processed foods. The reason is simple, most people don't know what they are actually eating. Even if you can pronounce the obscure names on the backs of  nutrition labels that doesn't mean it should be consumed. I won't bore you with every little ingredient and how your body processes them.

One of my youngest daughter's favorite snack items is the jelly filled grain bars from the supermarket. I personally despise them. They are overly sweet and unappetizing. With that said, I decided that I need to see what I was actually feeding her. Aside from the obvious use of white flour and high fructose corn syrup, did you know that they use dyes derived from petroleum  to "enhance" the color of the filling? I wasn't aware that yummy fruit needed enhancing. I'm silly that way. I don't want to lecture anyone on what they eat, or what they choose to feed their kids, I just want you to know the facts. You are more than capable of deciding for yourself.

I digress. Next I contemplated the components of these bars and realized they are very similar to Raspberry Oatmeal Squares. I just knew that I could tweak the recipe to make it more healthful. So I used whole grains, real fruit, used healthy fat, and decreased the sugar. So here you go.

Fruit and Grain Bars

1-16 oz pkg of frozen strawberries, nothing added (use fresh or frozen berries or applesauce)

1/4 cup honey (you can sub brown rice syrup, agave, or any sweetener you choose) 

Cook this down to 1 cup and mash or puree to desired consistency. Let cool.

1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour (you could use AP flour, but my attempt was to get wholesome foods into my daughter)

1-1/4 cups rolled oats (again, instant oats are fine too, so are steel cut)

1/2 cup wheat germ (this can be flax seed or nuts if you want more crunch) 

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup of a healthy oil, I used canola (sub coconut or olive oil or butter if you are cool like that)

Mix the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Stir in oil. Pat 2/3 of the grain mixture into a 9" square pan. Make sure you pack in and don't leave gaps. Bake this at 350 degrees until it just starts to brown which was 15 minutes in my oven. Then spread the fruit on top of the warm crust. Next sprinkle the remaining grain mixture on top of the fruit. Bake again until the fruit bubbles around the edges, which was about 20 minutes. Let cool completely on the counter before you cut the bars and remove them from the pan.

I will admit to eating a few of these this afternoon. At least I wasn't ingesting harmful chemicals!