I can’t believe summer is already coming to an end, and my husband is going back to school!  Since the Mann house is starting to get back into the school year routine, I am sharing our family’s favorite homemade granola bar recipe. My husband packs one of these bars in his lunch for work every day.  I used to buy granola bars at the grocery store. However, I found that some of the store-bought bars contained ingredients that I didn’t love, and the "cleaner" granola bars never tasted that great to me. So, after trying many recipes that were not so yummy, I finally found these bars on fivehearthome.com. Our whole family loves them! They are super easy to whip up and taste so good.

You will need:

1 cup peanut butter (we use a natural peanut butter, but you can use almond butter, sunflower seed butter, or your favorite nut butter instead)

½ cup honey

½ cup coconut oil

2 ½ cups rolled oats

1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

½ cup mini chocolate chips (we use Enjoy Life’s dairy and soy free semi-sweet chocolate chips)

To make:

Mix the peanut butter, honey, and coconut oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Continue stirring the mixture until all three ingredients are combined and smooth. Once the mixture is smooth, remove from heat and add the rolled oats and shredded coconut. Mix well. Dump the mixture into a pan (I use a 9 x 13 glass dish) and spread evenly.

Sprinkle desired amount of chocolate chips on top. Lightly press chocolate chips into the mixture with your hand to make sure they are secure. You don’t want them falling off!

Put a lid on the pan, and place the pan in the fridge until the bars are solid and cool. This usually takes about three hours. Once the bars have hardened, I set them out on the counter at room temp for about 15 minutes to soften. I then cut them into individual bars (I get nine bars from this recipe) and wrap each bar in plastic wrap. This makes it easy for Phil to grab one and pack it in his lunch. Because the base of these bars is made with coconut oil, they will soften at room temperature. They need to be stored in a fridge or with an ice pack until they are ready to be eaten. They are great for school lunches, as a snack throughout the day, or even as an after school snack! I hope you love them!