Granola Breath

I tried two new recipes this week, both of which are healthier choices. They come out of a new book I've been reading: Sara Snow's Fresh Living. (You can check out her website and the recipes there.) With the new school year beginning, I've decided to try and create healthier snacks for myself and my snackaholic husband, although I'm not sure if he will ever choose granola or oatmeal bars over Taco Bell and candy. At least I can say I tried.

Here are my thoughts on these two recipes. The first one is a recipe for "Healthy Oatmeal Cookie Snacks". Out of the two recipes, this was the best and my favorite. Maybe because it actually called for sugar and butter, which I am pretty sure are necessary ingredients to anything tasting good. (1 stick butter and 1/2 cup sugar still is pretty good, though.) They have somewhat of an oatmeal and bran flavor, and the dried fruit really adds a yummy punch. I'll definitely be eating these as a snack or a quick breakfast.

The second is "Fresh Baked Chunky Granola". Now I am a huge granola fan, but these fell a little flat for me. Okay, okay, I burned the almonds that were supposed to be toasted, but I think the real problem (can I call this a problem?) is that the only sweeteners in the recipe are juices and honey. I'm going to give it another try, but in the meantime, if anybody has a healthy granola recipe that tastes pretty good, pass it on to me.

The best part of both of these is that they are low in sugar and have lots of good-for-you ingredients, like oatmeal and fruit.

If you try these out, let me know what you think!