I’ve been trying to come up with a perfect homemade granola bars recipe since the fall, and I think I’ve finally done it!! While my previous attempts tasted amazing, they basically fell apart, which made them a little messy to eat and not blog worthy 
(The only bar recipe that’s made it onto the blog so far was my Cranberry Quinoa Peanut Butter Power Bars, which are awesome but involve baking, and I wanted a no-bake version!)
So finally, I would like to debut:
Five Minute Peanut Butter Granola Bars!
The key ingredient that I’d been missing? Crisp puffed brown rice cereal. This gives the bars better sticking power AND gives them a nice crunch 
And yes, these literally took me five minutes to throw together.
Five Minute Peanut Butter Granola Bars
(makes about 10 to 12 bars)
Ingredients:
Dry:
- 1 & 3/4 C rolled oats
- 1 C crisp puffed brown rice cereal
- 3/4 C seeds (I used 1/4 C each of pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and chia seeds)
- 1/4 C unsweetened coconut
- 1/8 C finely ground flaxseed
Wet:
- 1/2 C brown rice syrup
- 1/3 C creamy peanut butter
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
Instructions:
Add all the dry ingredients to a large bowl.
Mix them together.
In a separate (microwave safe) bowl, mix together the wet ingredients, then microwave them for about 20 to 30 seconds. This will make it easier to mix and add to the dry ingredients since it’s really sticky!
Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix!
Keep mixing until the wet binding ingredients are as well distributed as possible. Put some muscle into it!
Then, put the mixture into a shallow pan and flatten it down. Done and done!
Cut them into about 10 to 12 bars (they are probably a bit crumbly still, but don’t worry – the fridge will bind them!) and store them in the fridge. You can either just store them together in the big pan (covered with foil) or separately wrap them for easy grabbing and going! I did the latter.
Mmm… I wanted to eat them all immediately
Enjoy!! These are not only delicious, but they pack a serious nutritional punch Let me know if you try them! I’m excited to have them to bring to class and work for snacks this week.
I’m off to work and then tonight as I mentioned we have our first Nutrition exam! I spent a solid 4 hours yesterday studying and then brought my flash cards with me to the gym this morning, so I’m feeling prepared I now know exactly what’s going on in my body as I eat my breakfast! Cool stuff. The human body is seriously amazing.
Have a great day!
Those look awesome, thanks for sharing!
Good luck on your exam
I have never made my own bars before but in light of how much I spend on Cliff Bars I really should!! Thanks for the recipe
Those look perfect!! I will definitely be trying them. I have always been looking for the perfect granola bar recipe, too!
Those look delicious! I wonder what could be substituted to make a gluten free variety (without using GF oats)…
there are actually gluten-free oats by bobs red mill, heres the link: http://www.bobsredmill.com/gluten-free-rolled-oats.html. enjoy!
This looks so easy and delicious! Thanks for sharing!
Looks great! I’ve never made my own granola bar before… I’m dying to try though
Mmmm, can’t wait to try them! …just need to find rice syrup… Good luck on your exam!
Hmm I just might have to try these. Any idea what the calorie count would be? I’m more focused on that right now, especially for snacks.
The granola bars looks great, and so easy! Thanks for sharing the recipe. Good luck on your exam today!!
They look so good! I wonder if I can find some brown rice syrup in Aus?
wow! these look soooo good! i definitely will have to try them! the recipe sounds so easy! thanks for sharing!!!
Those look great!! I love the ingredient list. Not only is everything super nutritious, but the list itself is quite short and nothing is out of the ordinary; I can actually see myself making these. I can also see myself crumbling one of those babies atop some oatmeal or yogurt. Yum!
Yum.. those sound so good!! I have yet to make homemade bars.. why have I waited so long?! For this fabulous recipe of course haha seriously, I will have to try these!
Those are such a good idea, I like the idea of a no-bake granola bar. I hope your exam went well!
Mmmmm! I just made Averie’s no bake pb bars and they were so easy and tasty. I’ll have to try yours next.
Hope the exam went well:)
Those are all seeds, silly…not nuts. Good luck with your exam!
I’m so trying those granola bars. I hope the exam goes well. Way to tackle the snow and ice. That is great cardio! Hope you enjoyed Shutter Island too.
Anne these look amazing! So quick and easy. I’m going to try them this week, thanks for the recipe!
Thanks for the recipe – can’t wait to give it the ole’ college try! Hope the exam went well!
Wow these look great! (and easy to make, too!)
I only have sweetened coconut, do you think that would still work? Otherwise I think I have all that stuff! lol
[...] made homemade granola bars based off of Anne’s recipe. So delicious, and my granola-gobbling husband loved them [...]
[...] to get supplies for a recipe I found today for no bake peanut butter granola bars. I found this on Anne’s blog while randomly surfing. Her blog is so great, plus she used to live in [...]
these look great! any substitutions for brown rice syrup?
I made these at the beginning of the week! But, I added chocolate chips and cherries, too. DELICIOUS! What a great, easy treat. It is hard to not each the entire batch in one sitting.
Oh my gosh. Totally excited I found this!!! Thanks for your great ideas.
[...] over to Anne’s page for the [...]
[...] Anyway… I meant to tell you all what I changed about the granola bar recipe. I did not use chia seeds, just pumpkin and sunflower. And I used the puffed wheat cereal instead of the puffed rice. I can’t wait to keep making these and having them for around the house, to take to work, road trips, etc. So easy and healthy! Thanks Anne! [...]
[...] day I’ve been thinking about making Anne’s 5 Minute Peanut Butter Granola Bars. I’ve had her recipe starred for weeks and have been slowly collecting items for the mix. It [...]
Seriously love these.
First batch I made I hadn’t found and brown rice syrup, so I subed the 1/2 cup of that for 1/4cup honey and 1/4cup maple syrup.
That was good for sure.
I’ve gotten my second batch under my belt now and made with brown rice sryup *which btw is Ah-may-zing*!
Thanks!
Just tried making these for the first time today. They are delicious!! Thanks so much.
You are very welcome
Hi! I super love granola bars and im a vegetarian so all the more go go for your recipe! I’ll be trying this later n tell u how it goes! How long is the shelf life of this granola???? Super thanx!!!!
I hope you like them! If you want to keep the granola bars longer than a week or two, store them individually wrapped in foil in the freezer
They’ll last a couple months!
I made these today and they are SO YUMMY! I omitted the flaxseeds and added walnuts and goji berries to the mix. Thanks for the great recipe!
I made these yesterday! I ♥LOVE♥ them. Thank you so much for the recipe. I do have one question. Do you know the nutritional values for the bars?
Hooray! Unfortunately I don’t have the nutritional stats – I’m sorry!
I made these a few minutes ago and they are AMAZING!!! I love love love them. Thanks for the recipe. Since a lot of people are asking for the nutritional stats (and because I have time on my hands, lol), I calculated it. This information is based on 12 bars:
Nutrition Facts
Serving Size 47 g
Calories 189
Total Carbohydrates 24.6g
Dietary Fiber 4.4g
Sugars 9.3g
Protein 6.0g
Wonderful — THANK you!! I will update the page with this info when I get a chance
I finally got the ingredients to make the homemade granola…its delicious. I added some craisans to mine( i love them) YUMMY!!!
I just saw these linked from another blog. They look great!
I have a 5 minute vegan PM granola bar recipe too that I posted last Jan and have been making them ever since.
http://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2010/01/vegan-peanut-butter-choc-chip-protein.html
Just delete this comment if the link drop isn’t cool! I totally understand
These were great! I’m going to get my 8-yr old daughter to help me make the next batch. They’re so easy. And good for post workout munching.
I came across your blog from a friend and am in love with it! You cook just the way I do. I have already made your Vegan whole wheat carrot cake muffins (wow, so impressed by the flavor!!) and I just made these granola bars. I’ve been dying to make my own granola bars but was intimidated, this recipe seemed simple enough and it was! They’re delicious and exactly what I was looking. Btw-I am having a hard time eating just one carrot cake muffin at a time! I am so interested in nutrition and would love to go back to school sometime and persue it. Goodluck, your blog will continue to inspire me!
Thanks for the sweet comment, Holly! So glad you’re enjoying the blog
Just had my 3girls make their own batch each. They just loved making them and cant wait to try some. Do you know of another sub for peanut butter we can’t have this at school??
Awesome!
Can you have almond butter at school? That would work, too!
Thanks for the alternative, as long as there are no kids with an almond allergy