Chocolate Mocha Granola Bars

It’s Secret Recipe Club time!  SRC is a fun little club in which members secretly create a recipe from their assigned blogger’s site.  It is always so fun to search through the recipes each reveal day and find out which of your recipes inspired another blogger!

This month, I had the pleasure of cooking up a recipe from Averie’s blog, Love Veggies and Yoga.  Averie has some lovely healthy recipes, many of which fall into specialty diets such as vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, and raw. But she also has a bit of a sweet tooth!

When it came time to pick a recipe, that sweet tooth was calling my name!  But instead of choosing a dessert, I decided to make some granola bars!  I added some ground flax for a bit of fiber and some instant coffee for depth.  This makes a very small batch (just 2 or 3 bars!) but is easily doubled.  My family loved these so much, I will definitely be making them again!

Recipe Notes:

*Choose your favorite add-ins in place of the ground flax!  Experiment with mini chocolate chips, nuts, dried fruit, wheat germ, or seeds.

Chocolate Mocha Granola Bars

Adapted from Love Veggies and Yoga

2 tbsp semi sweet chocolate chips

2 tbsp smooth peanut butter

2 tbsp lowfat milk

½ tsp (heaping) instant coffee or espresso powder

½ cup Old Fashioned Oats

1 tbsp (heaping) ground flax

1 tbsp white chocolate chips

¼ tsp vegetable shortening (if needed)

Place the chocolate chips, peanut butter, milk, and instant coffee in a small, microwave safe bowl.  Microwave for 30 seconds and stir until smooth.  Microwave for an additional 10 seconds, if needed.

Stir in the oats and flax until mixed.  Add additional oats, one tablespoon at a time if the mixture is too soupy.

Pour the mixture onto a piece of cling wrap and shape into a brick.  Seal with the cling wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm.

Once firm, use a sharp knife to cut the brick into 2 or 3 bars.  Melt the white chocolate (with a pinch of instant coffee), in the microwave at 15 second increments, stirring until smooth.  If the chocolate is too thick to drizzle, stir in the shortening to thin.  Drizzle the white chocolate over the granola bars and serve.