Yummy Granola Trail Bars (with recipe)

A friend clued me in on a local health food store, Tree of Life, which offers classes on all sorts of different topics.  Last night we finally had the opportunity to take a class on making granola trail bars.

It was a surprise for Himself.  He knew we were going to do something but until we arrived he had no idea what was in store.  He's always said he didn't like granola bars but I thought maybe he would if he had the chance to try real ones.

Our instructor Skye was great.  She knows nutrition and she knows yummy ingredients.

See?  Yummy ingredients!

There was several sweetening options available... brown sugar, honey, agave, and a new one to us; coconut palm sugar.  We tasted the coconut sugar and decided to go with it.  It's not super sweet.

We got to pick out the yummy ingredients we wanted in our granola mix.

Himself had the 'kitchen sink' blend.  

Coconut shavings, pumpkin seeds, apricots, figs, cranberries, raisins, walnuts, pecans, and sunflower seeds.

I made a yummy gourmet blend... apricots, figs, cranberries, and pecans.

Mixing up the base that holds the yummy ingredients together.

Packing it down in the baking pan.

Eight pans of granola bars... eight varieties.

Ours!

My chewy granola bars on the left and Himself's crunchy granola bars on the right.

All that is left to do is to cut them into bars and enjoy.