Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Homemade vs. Store-Bought



I love Fiber One bars. They make a great breakfast along with a mug of hot tea. Unfortunately my husband and kids have discovered their yummy chewy goodness too. Which of course means that a box lasts about 6 hours in our house and they are now no longer worth the expense.

In order to give my kids something healthy and cheap to wolf down I went on a search for homemade granola bar recipes. I found several options on www.allrecipes.com and decided to use these two:


Both recipes were very easy to make and tasted great. The kids were skeptical at first because the finished product doesn't look exactly like the store-bought bars, but once they tasted them they were hooked.

The recipes are also very flexible and it is easy to sneak in some wheat germ or flax seed. The chocolate chips can be replaced with dried fruits, seeds and nuts. But best of all these chewy bars can be made for just a few cents each!

I also decided that I could probably make mini whole wheat bagels for a fraction of the cost of buying them at the store. Brian and I like to eat those for breakfast too. The recipe I found (at Tammy's Recipes) used bread flour, so I just replaced a couple of cups with wheat flour. They came out delicious and were also pretty easy to make.

The hardest thing about making your own bagels is getting them nice and smooth. These are my two best attempts.


But this is what the rest of them looked like.


Not very appetizing I know.....but they really were super delicious.

I think next time I will try cutting my dough into the small pieces to be shaped into bagels instead of just pulling off a portion. That might help them stay a little smoother. Either way they tasted great and cost very little. We've been eating them for a week now.

For more great recipes and tips visit Kitchen Tip Tuesdays at Tammy's Recipes .

3 comments:

Sherry @ Lamp Unto My Feet said...

Oooh, thank you for posting the granola bars! I"m going to have to give them a go!! :D

Ali said...

I followed your link from Tammy's. :)

How do you shape your bagels? There are two ways to do it, and not everyone prefers the same method. I prefer to divide the dougn into even sections, roll each section into a long "snake" and then connect the ends. Thsi ussually results in a smooth round bagel, but you have to have a pretty wet dough or elso the two ends won't connect. The other method, involves making a ball out of each section and then sticking your finger through the center, rotating gently, and stretching the bagel into a ring shape. This works, too, but sometimes the bagels aren't as pretty, especially if you stretch too hard and tear the dough.

Sorry for the long comment! ;)

Anonymous said...

I have found after many failed attempts at bagels that a quick bake in the oven at a pretty high heat puffs them up and then do the boil then the bake again...its a longer process but they really do come out nicer looking!