Adventures of D and V: A guest post

Hi there! I'm Veronica (the "V" in Adventures of D and V) and I am beyond thrilled to be Rachel's guest poster today. The "D" is for Daniel, my amazingly wonderful husband of 2 years and my best friend. Our lives have been one adventure after another since we met. 

(The best day of our adventure thus far, our wedding day!)

Together we are pretty much the ultimate DIYers.

From cooking to crafting,

home improvement to home renovation

we like to do things ourselves!

At the moment we have undertaken the huge task of finishing our basement.

Well, not JUST finishing...

Take a look {HERE} for more details on our Operation: Finish Basement

Today I am going to share with you one of my most favorite and most frequently used recipes:

How to make your own granola bars! 

Daniel loves granola bars and could eat a whole box if given a change. And to be honest, those little buggers can be expensive! So I set out to learn how to make my own. 

This recipe is very flexible. Our favorite flavor combination so far has been:

Here is the basic recipe I start off with: 1 can of sweetened condensed milk, 2 c. oats (we use gluten free oats), 1/2 c. nuts (for this recipe I used chopped pecans), 1 c. dried fruit (I used cranberries), 1/2 c. white chocolate chips, 2 t. cinnamon.

Step 1: Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Step 2: Mix all ingredients together

TIP OF THE DAY: let your can of sweetened condensed milk sit in a bowl of hot water for a few minutes while you measure out the other ingredients. Doing this will make the mixing process MUCH easier!

Step 3: Using a spoon (or your fingers) lightly press the mixture into a parchment paper lined cookie pan, spreading it evenly. The bigger the pan you use, the thinner your granola bars will be. I like mine kind of a medium thickness so I use my smallest cookie pan.

Step 4: Bake them for 25 min at 350 degrees. If you like your granola bars a little more crunchy, you can leave them in for another 10 min, just watch that the top doesn't start to burn. 

Step 5: After your remove the granola bars from the oven, flip them over onto a cutting board and peel off the parchment paper. Let them cool for about 10 min on the cutting board before cutting them.

I have found that the easiest way to cut these into bar size is by using a pizza cutter! Don't wait until they are all the way cool to cut them because they will get a little stiff. 

And there you have it, home made granola bars!  I wrap my granola bars individually in plastic wrap to pack in our lunches. Like I said before you can add or leave out any kinds of nuts and dried fruit. I will even melt some peanut butter to mix in with the sweetened condensed milk just to change things up a bit. 

I would love to know your favorite granola bar flavor combination! I am always looking for new ideas. Jump on over to Adventures of D and V and let me know what you think!