Homemade Granola Bars

So I don't know what's quite gotten into me but I have been so interested in taking some creative work into the kitchen and have spent quite a bit of time lately looking through recipes and food pictures for inspiration! A wonderful site I just discovered has not been too bad with giving out inspiration :) Amy at fearlesshomemaker.com is truly fearless with her lovely kitchen attempts! I am still going through the pages and pages of recipes on her site!
I've now tried 2 of them myself, the cinnamon roll muffins and now these delicious homemade granola bars...
Homemade Granola Bars:
Ingredients
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup honey
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups cooking oats
1 cup crispy rice cereal
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons mini chocolate chips (plus an additional 1/4 cup of mini chocolate chis if you'd like a little extra chocolate!)
Directions...

Lightly grease a baking pan, set aside.

Mix the crispy rice cereal and oats together, set aside.

In small pot, melt butter, honey and brown sugar together (I cut the butter into smaller pieces) over medium high heat until it comes to a bubble. reduce heat and cook 2 minutes, until the sugar dissolves. Carefully pour in vanilla extract (it will bubble up a bit), a pinch of salt and stir. Remove from heat.

Pour syrup mixture over dry ingredients and mix well to moisten all ingredients.

 If you'd like extra chocolate version fold in 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips. Pour into your greased baking pan and press out to be about 3/4 inch in thickness. If your pan isn't small enough, pack the mixture into one side (this is what I did). You really want to press them down so they stick together. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons mini chocolate chips and press down lightly.

Cool on a counter top at room temperature for 2 hours or until the chocolate chips are set before cutting into bars. Note: I put mine in the frig for a little while (not too long), just to speed up the process a little! Store in airtight container at room temperature (our's didn't make it far enough for this tip!).

My personal advise: Don't measure the chocolate chips! Ok, maybe not the healthiest advise, but goodness, its chocolate! In fact, while my bars were setting, I put some chocolate chips, little bit of butter, vanilla and brown sugar and a splash of milk in a small pan and melted them together. Then dipped a few of the bars in the chocolate, which gave them a nice chocolate layer on the bottom! They were really good ;)

Anyways, if you're a health nut, then these will suit you because you can make them healthy style with a little less chocolate and more nuts, seeds, ect. And if you're a not-so-healthy person these will suit you because you can add as much or as little chocolate to them as you'd like :)

These were delicious and were gone before the night was out :) I loved making them and am excited to have this recipe to go to if I need to make something simple, easy and what everyone can enjoy! They're great for snacks, bake sale items, gifts, and hikes/outings! Quite a good way to avoid buying any granola bars with all those wrong ingredients from the store!

Enjoy!