The Scenic Route

From our canoe trip this past summer. Very scenic.

I am not crazy. I don’t think… I found a recipe last night on Pinterest. (I’m obsessed to put it lightly. All the cool people are doing it!)

The recipe is for homemade chewy granola bars. Supposedly they rival Quaker Chewy Granola Bars (Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter! S’mores!) Plus when made by my own hands, I know that there aren’t any funky preservatives included.

So, now to the meat of this story, I found this recipe and it is made with granola (obviously). Well, I started looking at different types and the site suggested using homemade granola… My wheels started turning. How hard can homemade granola be? Not very, according to another recipe I found. That recipe makes granola with applesauce instead of oil to cut the amount of fat. I’m all for some fat reduction! (Do you see where this is going yet? Don’t worry, I’m gonna spell it out.)

Ok, so now we have a recipe for granola bars that will facilitate the making of granola and a granola recipe that will of course inspire me to use homemade applesauce! I’ve made applesauce before and it is so easy it is ridiculous for me to even think of buy it again. It only takes 15 minutes and it makes a great snack.

I thought this was a great idea, but when I told E my plan he looked at me like I was nuts (Not exactly a new phenomenon, but normally he just shrugs his shoulders and lets me do whatever it is I want to do.) and to be fair, he wasn’t the only one. The women at work told me it sounded like more trouble than it was worth.

So my question is, am I nuts? Is it more trouble than it is worth? I don’t think so. I really don’t. I think it is much more satisfying to make my own applesauce to use in my granola recipe that I can use for granola bars. If I could, I would grow my own apple trees. I’m not crazy. Sometimes it is better to take the long road.

P.S. If y’all are interested in the recipes, I have put them in a group post that can be found here.