Contrary to what you might think, there's an easy way to get a tasty, healthy snack without breaking your budget. Many of today's “healthy” snacks actually are packed with sugar and unhealthy fats and nearly devoid of nutritional value. Even granola bars are sometimes nothing more than cleverly disguised junk food. Some companies do offer truly nutritious granola bars, but they’re often only available at specialty stores and can be expensive.

For a smart, simple treat, check out this recipe for homemade granola bars from Denise Garoutte’s article, “Homemade Granola Bars,” in Mother Earth News magazine.

Homemade Granola Bars
2½ cups rolled oats (old fashioned or instant)
1 cup shredded coconut
½ cup raw sunflower seeds
¼ cup sesame seeds
½ cup wheat germ
½ cup slivered almonds
4 tablespoons butter or margarine
¼ cup dark brown honey
1 cup raisins
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Bake the oats, coconut, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, wheat germ and almonds on a 9-by-12-inch baking sheet for 20 minutes, starting as you preheat your oven to 300 degrees.

Heat the butter, brown sugar and honey in a small saucepan, simmering while the dried ingredients are baking. Add the raisins to the dried mix as soon as it’s removed from the oven.

Remove the saucepan from the heat, mix in the vanilla extract and pour the liquid mix over the oat mixture, stirring until all the dried mixture is coated.

Press the granola firmly into the bottom of a greased 8-by-8-inch pan and place the pan in the still-warm oven to bake (at 300 degrees) for 20 minutes. You can cut the batch into bars after the granola has cooled slightly, but wait to take the bars out of the pan until they’re completely cool.

This recipe alone makes a yummy treat, but these ingredients simply make up a basic granola recipe. You can mix things up with a variety of seeds, fruits and anything else that sounds good in a granola bar. Dried figs, dates, apples and apricots all can be successful additions, or you can add crunchy peanut butter to the honey mix or substitute rolled wheat or rye for 1 cup of the oats. Substitute molasses for part of the honey, add poppy seeds or carob chips, or sprinkle in some cinnamon.