Chocolatey Chewy Granola Bites

It’s my own doing that the children prefer my homemade foodstuffs over the store-bought goods. I suppose I should be grateful but at times it can feel like a lot of pressure when you have three sets of hungry eyes looking at you and then those three mouths are asking you for a snack. But not just any snack. They want a snack that you’ve made yourself. I don’t know. I guess it’s true that food sometimes feels like love. So what is one to do but stick one’s head in the pantry and see what can be cobbled together? And there is a lot of cobbling these days because grocery shopping is my least favorite chore—I dislike it even more than laundry—and I’m trying to be more conscious of our food budget and food waste, thus the pantry and the fridge often look quite bare. Yet sometimes it’s the lack of resources that gives birth to creativity. But I digress.

In the pantry I found a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips, a bag of old-fashioned rolled oats, some puffed millet, brown rice syrup, olive oil, and some salt. Ah. Right. All of these left over from an attempt at a recipe from Alana Chernila’s “Homemade Pantry” for something called “Car Snack 1 (The Cereal Bar).” They were a hit the first time so I decided to use the recipe as inspiration for these Chocolatey Chewy Granola Bites. Are you going to get chocolate all over your fingers? For sure. But these not-too-sweet chewy and crunchy bites are a healthy treat for kids (and for adults), require zero baking, and use only two dishes so it’s a win for me.

To make these gluten-free, just ensure that you’re using gluten-free oats. If you want them a touch sweeter, consider using milk chocolate chips. Add in nuts if you’d like. Oh! I imagine a combination of dried cherries and dark chocolate chips might also be amazing. The options are pretty much endless. And since it doesn’t require too much work, I’m sure we’ll be playing around with this recipe all summer.

Chocolatey Chewy Granola Bites

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup olive oil

• 1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

• 1 1/2 cups puffed millet

• 1/2 tsp kosher salt

• 3/4 semisweet chocolate chips

• 1/2 cup brown rice syrup

• 1/4 cup brown sugar

• 1 tablespoon vanilla

Instructions

1. Lightly grease a 9 x 13-inch baking dish. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the oats, puffed millet, kosher salt, and semisweet chocolate chips. Stir to combine.

2. In a medium saucepan, combine the brown rice syrup, brown sugar, and vanilla. Stir to combine and then heat to a low boil. Let boil for 2 minutes.

3. Pour the syrup mixture over the oats, millet, and chocolate stips and stir until everything is coated evenly and most of the chocolate chips have melted.

4. Spread the mixture into the pan and then refrigerate for 1 hour. Cut into small squares when ready to serve.