When we still had teenagers at home, I baked Magic Granola Bars fairly often – granola, chocolate chips and coconut on a graham cracker crust drizzled with sweetened condensed milk. And then on a recent hike I thought, We need to come up with a homemade energy bar … and the Magic Granola Bar recipe came to mind.

Here’s a healthier version of the original recipe, loaded with stuff you would normally find in trail mix – nuts, chocolate and raisins.  

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  

2. Place 9x13” baking dish in oven with:

8 Tbsp Earth Balance Natural Buttery sticks (1 stick) 

3. When butter is melted, remove pan from oven and sprinkle evenly with:

1½ cups crushed graham crackers (approx 9 graham crackers) 

4. Layer evenly on top of graham cracker crumbs:

1 cup grain-sweetened chocolate chips

1 cup granola

1½ cups nuts, coarsely chopped (I use a combination of pecans and walnuts)

1 cup raisins 

5. In medium small bowl, blend:

1 (10-oz) container of Suzanne’s Ricemellow Crème

1½ Tbsp milk (I use almond or rice milk) 

6. Drizzle Ricemellow Crème mixture evenly over all ingredients in baking dish. 

7. Bake for 23-25 minutes, or just until edges are browned (do not overbake or edges become hard).  

8. Cool. Cut into 2” squares. Yields approximately 24 bars.