For starters, let me tell you that I am not one of those people who feel like everything is worth making from scratch. Some things just aren't worth either the money they save in time or are just as expensive, if not more so, when making it at home. However, making it from scratch almost always means it going to be more healthy for you, usually with less sugar and preservatives. I will make things from scratch if I have the ingredients on hand and am feeling especially studious, or if I just really want to see if I can make something just as good and cheaper of something I usually buy. For example, protein bars. They are expensive and I can make them cheaper at home.
Anyway, we always buy breakfast fruit bars. I usually buy generic from Aldi and they are around $1.89 for a box of 8. So, the homemade version is not any cheaper. It's one of those times it's actually more expensive to make them from home. But, the version I buy is loaded with sugar, and even though they aren't large bars, I still wanted to see if I could make a healthier version myself.
I found a recipe on Half Baked Harvest and decided to give it a try. I used strawberry preserves I already had in the fridge, so I didn't make them homemade. I also had regular yogurt instead of greek, butter instead of coconut oil, which the recipe said you can substitute, (I've seen coconut oil in a lot of recipes lately, so I think I need to buy some to have on hand), and didn't have any vanilla, much to my surprise after I had already made the dough.
That being said, these came out tasting OK. Of course, these have no sugar in them besides the preserves and honey, so they aren't sweet at all. They taste different than the store bought version. I am going to try them again, using more preserves and rolling them out flatter, and using the correct ingredients next time. On the other hand, they had lots of good stuff in them, so I didn't feel guilty eating two. Next time, I might also use wheat germ to up the nutrition factor, and grind the oats instead of using them whole.
A good breakfast on a cold day!
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