Copycat Nature Valley Granola Bars

Awesome! We used to buy these a lot and they were so crunchy they’d displace teeth – but so yummy. I love the idea of making my own – maybe dip the bottom into some chocolate or a peanut butter coating. Yum Yum!

Katie this looks so easy and delicious. I would much rather make my own bars than buy them from the store… and all these ingredients are 99% of the time in my kitchen. Perfect for weekday snacking, nice post!

I’m another person that was obsessed with these in high school! I hated the school lunches and would often bring a granola bar and an apple instead. I’ve stopped buying them because they’re so sugary, so I’ll have to give these a try!

Nature Valley = <3

I ate these all through high school, but now they're a bit sweet for me. I opt for the Kashi granola bars when they're not too expensive 🙂

Ha! What horses eat! That is too funny! ….I do like your recipe quite a bit and think it would be worth a try for sure!

You reciepe sounds so amazing I have to try to make them. I was wondering do you use quick cooking oats or regular oats or does it not matter?

Thank you.

I just bought some vanilla stevia drops for making your chocolate bars. Could I use that in place of the agave?

Are these hard like the nature valley? We buy the clif bars now, because they are the only ones I can find vegan, but I absolutely miss my favorite genisoy bars the chocolate mint ones! have you ever tried to come up with a vegan marshmallow?

Do I get a gold star? I have already made these, and they’re in my oven right now! I of course tasted some of the raw dough and it was DELISH! 🙂

so impressed you could copycat these.. they seem hard to get all crispy!

Clif bars!

Ohh I love Nature Valley bars! I like how crunchy they are and that Honey Oats flavor has always been my favorite… so obviously I need to make these now!! For the liquid sweetener do you think I could do Stevia drops?

For a snack, I adore vega vibrancy bars although I think I prefer the original instead of chocolate– I know I’m sorry but the chocolate version is less a snack than a dessert! My other fav, which is a meal replacement is the vegan organic food bar: pricey, but it’s sooo worth it for the taste and for the nutrients (which is pretty dense [I have yet to try the chocolate kind]). BUT if I want a peanut butter and chocolate fix, I go for a pb and choco chip larabar which trumps ALL of the above.

I used to love those Nature Valley bars, but most aren’t vegan because of the honey. So glad to see a vegan version!

Amazing! I will definetly be trying these out 🙂

These look awesome! And sweet photography…the shoe lace dealio is pretty. 🙂

These are going on my weekly foodie favorites! I’ve been looking for granola recipes.. granola bars are even better.

As for my favorite bars..I like the fiber one chocolate chip bars and there are these new Special K chocolate and pretzel bars that are the perfect salty and sweet. Yum.

Great idea! Can’t wait to try this!

Pretty pictures! The cutting board, oats, green ribbon…looks great.

Fantastic…you are just so clever! I love these and especially with a tall glass of almond milk.

I love all your bars and I am usually always snacking on LARA Bars or TLC bars. 🙂

My absolute favorite bars are the chocolate peanut butter Zing bars, so delicious, so gluten-free, SOOOOO expensive.

Yum Yum and more Yum…I love the oats n’ honey bars!

Yum!! I LOVE those bars!

Awesome blog Katie. Going to hit you up every time I need to make a dessert for an event. My roommate and I put on healthy feasts and then blog about them. We will make sure to steer everyone to your page!

YUMMY!!!! I was just thinking of looking for a recipe and this appeared in my inbox….thanks! I love your recipes! Especially the chocolate ones…hehehe!

I love how simple and clean this recipe is. My girls don’t like granola bars with too much ‘going on’ so I can’t wait for them to try these.

These bars look so good! I used to really like the Nature Valley bars, but now I think they’re too sweet. These look like they’ll be perfect! It’s so funny that your friend calls them “horse food.” I recently made a batch of healthy oatmeal cookies that got a similar reaction. When my husband tried them, he said they tasted like horse food, and he started calling them “horse cookies.” Now, whenever I make anything healthy, he puts the word “horse” in front of it.

I’m in love with Nature’s Valley <3

SO I tried this recipe and loved it! My local supermarket didn't have any small boxes of Rice Krispies so I put in almonds instead. I was worried it would fall apart but it held together nicely. It tasted so good I only cut it into 5 😉

I LOVE Clif Kids Z-bars. Especially the Brownie flavored…yum! I buy them “for my kids” but I always end up eating more than they do!

Question: Have you tried using Coconut Nectar in any of your recipes? I’m wondering if I could substitute the agave in this recipe. I bought a bottle because I saw it in my local health food store and it sounded interesting, but I’m not sure how to use it. The label makes it sound like it is a healthier alternative to agave, but I’ve never tasted agave so I’m not sure if this is similar! It’s molasses thick, comes from the sap of a coconut tree, but doesn’t taste like maple syrup. I guess I could stop typing about it and just give it try, right? 😉

I too have been wanting to make some peanut butter granola bars and so far this is the closest to what I’m interested in (except for the pb). Do you have any opinions on simply adding some pb to this recipe? I was going to go for chewy anyways, as that’s what the boys here prefer 🙂

I’ve got to try this. I especially like the idea of peanut butter ones, but I will try the recipe pretty much as written first. But just a thought on a PB variation: Maybe some ground peanuts instead of ground oats and PB instead of the oil?

Yummy! I substituted vital wheat gluten for the oat flour and only used the 3T of agave for sweetener. I crumpled a couple bars over some almond milk yogurt for breakfast 🙂

I have to stay this recipe is amazing! I love it some much. I used coconut flour in replace of the oat flour. It has such a great flavor. I also had problems cutting it into bars so I just broke it up into a bunch of big pieces. And my husband decided last night to eat some with frosting on top. Thank you so much for this recipe!

You are a genius. 😀

Hi Katie. I just found you on Pinterest! And I love your recipes!! I have a question about this one- I have never backed anything in wax paper- it seems like it would melt into the food?

I made these and they are by far the best home-made granola bar I’ve made! My son loves them! I have a couple questions – what size pan did you bake yours in? I used an 8 in round cake pan (my 8 inch square was in use) and baked for 18 min and they turned out very brown and almost over-done. I’m going to reduce the time for the next batch but was just curious what size you were using – maybe mine are coming out a lot thinner so they’re baking faster. Also, if adding raisins and mini chocolate chips would you increase the amount of wet ingredients to help them stick together? I added both and they are a bit crumbly so I’m assuming I should increase the wet ingredients. Would you increase the oil or the sweetener or a little bit of both?

agave is a type of thick sweetner like___ Honey__ can be a used in the place of it

Just made this and it’s gorgeous! I did 1 – 1/2 times the recipe as I didn’t have a tin small enough. I used a crushed (chocolate covered) rice cake instead of rice crispies because I didn’t have any. And I had to add a extra 2tsp of oil and a tbsp of honey so it got to something I thought would stick together. I also added some dark chocolate, dried cherries, dried apricots and dried goji berries for extra yummyness and vitamins.
It didn’t turn out as crispy as the nature valley bars – probably because a) it’s still warm and b) the amount of honey I used but for me that is a good thing as I find the nature valley ones verge a little on the dangerously crispy side. It almost came out like a flapjack (english oat tray bake – not a pancake), and again that is good for me, I like flapjacks 🙂

homemade belivita breakfast biscuits 🙂

First off: I LOVE YOUR SITE! Second: I really wanted to make these but was missing a couple things. I also was in the mood for something with fruit, and let me tell you what I did was AWESOME. I didn’t have rice crisps, but I added a handful (each) of dates, sliced almonds, craisins, a couple shakes of cinnamon, 1T quinoa (uncooked), and some dried apple crumbs. Needless to say, they didn’t hold together as well, but DANG they tasted good!! My kids were going nuts over them, and so was I! I can’t wait to have my husband try them. Thanks so much for your ideas and awesome recipes!

I finally got around to making these and they were awesome! I am really surprised that the two people above me said they were way too salty. Maybe I have a salt tooth of something, but I thought they were perfectly balanced between salty and sweet. Thanks for the lovely recipe!

I’ve been playing with this recipe for a while now. I like it so much I usually quadruple the recipe so I have enough to last me a while. I’ve stopped using oat flour and any kind of puffed rice, adding oat bran and quick oats instead. I’ve also used olive oil instead of coconut, subbing some with homemade unsweetened raw applesauce. Another switch is local maple syrup, also subbing some of the sweetener with applesauce and a TON of cinnamon! Oh, and ground chia is delicious mixed in. Another trick I learned from my sister and the Homemade Pantry cookbook, put the granola in to bake in the evening for the required amount of time. Then, turn off the oven and leave the granola in there overnight. Do not open the oven door! That helps it “harden” and hold together a bit better!

I put in honey and organic raw agave nectar and organic sugar, as well as more vanilla and cinnamon. Turned out great. Thanks!

Hi greetings from Malaysia! I just made this an hour ago and it is GREAT!!! I’ve been looking for a granola bar recipe that does not turn into granola crumble and this is perfect. I literally jumped out of happiness that I finally made it (after tried lots of recipes). But I made a few changes, I used honey instead because I could not find agave. And butter instead of oil because I only have butter. I melted butter, honey and brown sugar on low heat. For dry ingredients I used 1 cup of corn flakes (a cereal), 1/4 cup of nestum (a type of cereal too), 1/8 cup of sunflower seeds and 1/8 cups of raisins. And the rest I didn’t change any. It’s very crunchy! This recipe is definitely a keeper. THANKS FOR SHARING!!

Thank you for this recipe, Katie! I keep Nature Valley granola bars in my purse because when I get the hiccups, if I don’t eat something pronto I get sick . I know, weird afflication! My mother likes them as well. I was telling her about their new Dark Chocolate Cherry bars. However, they also have almonds and cranberries. She cannot have the cranberries because of her blood pressure medicine. This prompted me to search for a copycate recipe for them and found your website. How would I modify the recipe above to make them chewy with dark chocolate, cherries, and almonds for her? I am not a foodie or a health nut, so I’m not very good at this sort of thing. Thank you for any help you can give me.

great recipe, except i kind of burnt mine. 18 minutes was too long for me, maybe 15 minutes would of been better. but still good!

Any ideas for what to use instead of rice? I’m actually rice intolerant. (I know a lot of folks with celiac or gluten intolerance in the family, and most of them have someone who’s rice intolerant, instead.)

As a health note, agave actually spikes your blood sugar worse than corn syrup or brown rice syrup, so diabetics should avoid it. I’m also unfortunately allergic to stevia, but I can use raw sugar there, instead.

I Love Love your website! Pinned a few things but just now able to read up on some of your recipes. On this particular one …. granola bars… do you have to use stevia or liquid sweetener? I have demerara sugar which we love. Could I use that instead?

Thanks!

Hey there Katie! I am a huge fan of these granola bars, and would like to feature them with a direct link to this blog, on my blog. You can visit my blog (which is just starting up) at yogisophie7.wordpress.com
Thank you for your consideration!
Sophie

How can we make these the chocolate version? I imagine sugar/cocoa mixed in, but I dare not guess 🙂