Nut-Free Granola Bars

I drove to my mother's house in Orem on Wednesday because I do that on Wednesdays, and Wednesday is a day I have organized around my mother. The week was a winter week, the kind where the light through the kitchen window arrives at a particular angle and the freezer hums in a different register depending on the temperature in the garage. I made notes in my prep notebook on Sunday afternoon, the way I always do: meal name, ingredient list, cost per serving, prep time, freezer instructions. Twenty-eight bags. Two hours and eleven minutes. A little slow this week, by my standards, but Brandon was helping and the conversation was good, and I have learned, slowly and against my own grain, that the conversation is sometimes the point and the time is sometimes a courtesy I extend to my husband for being willing to chop onions on a Sunday afternoon.

The recipe of the week was breakfast burrito bulk batch, which I have made some specific number of times in my life and have refined to a system that I now hand to other people in printed form. The version I made this week fed eight, cost under fifteen dollars, and required twenty-six minutes of active prep, which is within my requirements and not a coincidence. Three of the bags I pulled out this week were dated nine months ago and they were perfect, because labeling is theology in my house. I have stopped explaining the freezer-meal philosophy to people who already follow my work, and I have stopped apologizing for it to people who do not. The philosophy is simple: tomorrow is coming whether you are ready or not. You can either be ready or not. I pick ready.

Brandon called me at lunch on Tuesday for no particular reason and I knew without him saying so that he was thinking about Grace. Twenty-some years in, I can hear the silences. We have been married a long time. The arithmetic of it is the arithmetic of my whole life. There were years we missed each other in the same room, and there are years we find each other in the silences, and this is one of the latter, and I am old enough now to know that the latter is the achievement and the former was the cost.

The accountant in me keeps a private ledger of how old Grace would be. I do not consult it. It is automatic. I do not write about her every week. I do not avoid her either. She is in the kitchen the way the kitchen is in the kitchen — woven into the structure, not announcing herself, present. The photograph above the stove is the only one of her smiling, and it has watched me batch-prep more freezer meals than I can count, and I have stopped feeling strange about the parasocial relationship I have with a four-month-old who has been gone for years. She is my daughter. The photograph is what I have. I look. I keep cooking.

I'm Michelle. The freezer is full. Talk to you next week.

The breakfast burritos were this week’s main event, but these granola bars are the thing I keep in the freezer almost every week without writing it down — they’re that automatic. Brandon likes one in the afternoon and I like knowing they’re there, labeled and stacked, requiring nothing from me on a Wednesday when I’m driving to Orem and have already given the day to someone else. The philosophy applies to snacks too. You’re either ready or you’re not.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 30 minutes | Servings: 12

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup sunflower seed butter (or any nut-free seed butter)
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips or dried cranberries (optional)
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds

Instructions

Preheat oven. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line an 8x8 or 9x9 inch baking pan with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on two sides for easy lifting.
Toast the oats. Spread rolled oats on a rimmed baking sheet and toast in the preheated oven for 8–10 minutes, stirring halfway, until lightly golden and fragrant. Remove and let cool slightly.
Make the binder. In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, combine sunflower seed butter, honey, brown sugar, and coconut oil. Stir until smooth and the sugar has dissolved, about 3–4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract.
Combine. In a large bowl, combine toasted oats, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, cinnamon, and salt. Pour the warm binder over the oat mixture and stir until everything is thoroughly and evenly coated.
Add mix-ins. If using chocolate chips or dried cranberries, let the mixture cool for 2 minutes before folding them in so the chocolate doesn’t fully melt.
Press and bake. Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan and press down very firmly with the back of a spatula or the bottom of a measuring cup — the firmer you press, the better they hold together. Bake for 18–20 minutes, until the edges are golden.
Cool completely. Allow bars to cool in the pan for at least 1 hour at room temperature, then refrigerate for 30 minutes before cutting. Lift out using the parchment overhang and cut into 12 bars with a sharp knife.
Freeze. Wrap bars individually in plastic wrap, place in a labeled zip-top freezer bag, and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature for 20 minutes or overnight in the refrigerator.

Nutrition (per serving)

Nut-Free Granola Bars — The Batch That Proves the Philosophy