Homemade Granola Bars

I LOVE granola bars, my kids LOVE granola bars and we all LOVE sweetened condensed milk :)...when I saw this recipe I knew I had to try it and I am glad I did!!  I really love the taste of these and the fact that MOST of the ingredients are healthy...AND  they were very easy to make.  I have been storing these in the refrigerator.  I was afraid that they would be hard, when I took them out to eat, but they are not at all.

A little tip...if you are buying flax seeds and/or wheat germ at your grocery store, look for it in the bulk bin area.  It will be much cheaper there.  Also I found my sliced almonds much cheaper in bags in the produce isle than the nut isle...go figure:)

Homemade Granola Bars

slightly adapted from allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

3 cups quick-cooking oats

1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1 cup flaked coconut(I used sweetened)

1 cup sliced almonds

1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup flax seed

1/4 cup wheat germ

Directions:   Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch pan.  In a large bowl, mix together the oats, sweetened condensed milk, butter, coconut, almonds, chocolate chips, flax seed and wheat germ) with your hands until well blended. Press flat into the prepared pan.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, depending on how crunchy you want them(I took mine out at 20 minutes so they would be nice and chewy, not crunchy). Lightly browned just around the edges will give you moist, chewy bars. Let cool for 5 minutes, cut into squares then let cool completely before serving.      

The original recipe called for sweetened dried cranberries instead of the flax seed and wheat germ.  I love dried cranberries in my salad, but I am not a big fan of fruit in my granola bars...

How about you?  Do you like dried fruit in your granola bars?