Award Winning Granola Bars

I have a neighbor friend down the street named Linda. She is about the age of my mother. I noticed her and her husband picking up trash as they walk in all sorts of weather since we moved in almost 5 years ago. Turns out that they are both retired and have lived here since the early 80's when the subdivision was first built. They raised their kids here and now their kids are grown and have kids of their own. Linda and her husband Ed, you couldn't ask for nicer neighbors. I seem to gravitate to people who are a little older than my own age bracket. I have friends that ARE my age but often I find that the older generation have some very admirable qualities and wisdom that are primarily acquired through age and maturity. Linda and I have some things in common such as love of nature, frugality, litter picking, and a few other things that don't come to mind at the moment. She often has some pretty cool ideas/concepts that are very interesting to listen to and contemplate. Though we don't see eye to eye on some things, I find her to be a very wise, caring, and considerate person. Just a month ago when our dog rolled in ? and attacked a possum I called her out of desperation when I needed someone to play with Little Buddy for a bit while I bathed the filthy dog. We also are continually giving each other food and extra odds and ends back and forth. I wish I'd saved the nice note/song she wrote to me about how she so appreciated all the left overs that I gave them from when we had Thanksgiving. It was creative and hilarious and explained how she and her husband used every single morsel of food and even froze a bit of it for the future. I love that about her, not wasting anything and very appreciative and happy to also help in not wasting food. Which to me is a royal sin no matter how much money you have.

Back about a month or two, she brought me a little tin on one of her many walks. I opened it one day after hubby had gone to work and Little Buddy had gone down for his nap. There were three little bars individually wrapped in wax paper and a copy of a newspaper article from 1990. So I opened up one of the bars and began to eat it while I started reading the article. The article was about when her kids were still in school and she had submitted a recipe to the Market Day recipe contest. Her recipe for "Great Granola Bars" won the dessert category. I was near the end of the article and realized I had eaten all the bars. They were delicious! I never did anything with the recipe through the holidays. I sure wish I had. I could have given these granola bars out for Christmas gifts rather than making all the damn cookies, many of which didn't even get eaten. Next year I'm making these for Christmas treats for snacking and sending.
I made 2 pans the other day. I was hooked, then my husband got hooked, then Little Buddy. Then I gave a small container of them to my sister who also enjoyed them. Now we are one our second batch of them. So good, can't get enough. Gave my MIL and small container full last night when she came to watch Little Buddy for our date night. She took one bite and her eyes got really big and she said, "These are incredible!" I then showed her what there was for her to eat for dinner and she said, "I think I just may eat the granola bars for dinner." Without further ado, here's the recipe:

Great Granola Bars
3 cups rolled oats
2/3 cup melted margarine or butter
1 beaten egg
1/3 cup Market Day Honey
1/2 cup sweetened or plain coconut flakes
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup unsalted sunflower seeds
1/4 cup Market Day pecan pieces
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup Market Day Chocolate Chips

Divide oats onto two ungreased jelly roll pans. Spread into a thin layer and bake in 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes. Set aside to cool. Mix remainder of ingredients together and add cooled roasted oats. Press the mixture into a well greased 9x13" pan. Bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Do not over bake. Check frequently and remove pan from oven before the edges turn brown. Cool and cut into bars. This recipe can be varied easily. Raisins can be added in place of chocolate chips, molasses for honey or nuts for the chocolate chips.

A few things I should share about making this recipe. I do not have any Market Day products. I used sweetened generic coconut flakes, generic honey, butter instead of margarine, Nestle Chips, generic old-fashioned oats (but you can use the quick oats), one time I threw in some chopped up walnuts I had leftover in the freezer from making brownies awhile back. You can change out some of the ingredients depending on what you have and/or like. I tried to toast the oats on metal pans and my house smelled like burnt popcorn, they got a little over done. I then tried to toast the oats on aluminum pans like Linda suggests in another part of the article. Much better, they toasted more evenly. I also used 2 small aluminum baking pans for the baking of the bars because I do not have a 9x13 size. I toasted the oats for 10 minutes the second time around instead of 15 which turned out better also. Then I baked the granola bars for about 16/17 minutes instead of 20. I also doubled the vanilla just because.

These are phenomenal. I hope to try to make an ultra healthy version in the future. Maybe I'll even try using flax seeds, unsweetened coconut, dried fruit, almonds, walnuts, dried cranberries, etc.