Pumpkin Granola Bars

After our long, hot summer, JOY has arrived in October with beautiful weather! 

 I spend so much time outdoors on my patio, doing my Bible study and fiddling around in my yard.  

My table covering is a beautiful tea towel and my napkin is actually another tea towel that I received from a giveaway last year at my dear friend, Mary at Home Is Where The Boat Is.  Some towels are too pretty to use, and I actually have them hanging on my oven handle.  I have other towels that I don't use, do you, too?

This Grace's Teaware teacup is so versatile and is dishwasher safe.  I'm having some pumpkin spice tea from Aldi's which is really tasty.

My little pumpkin head character is a favorite October piece, along with these cute $5.00 pillows from Target.

The Great Pumpkin Cookbook has been in my collection since the 1980's and I decided to look through it again and found this great recipe to try for the granola bars.   I changed it up a little, and they are so good!

Yield: 30 bars

Author: Kitty, but adapted from The Great Pumpkin Cookbook

Pumpkin Granola Bars

These are a perfect treat with coffee or tea! If you have some extra pumpkin that you need to use, this is a great recipe.

Ingredients

• 2 cups quick or old fashioned oats, uncooked
• 1 cup chopped salted peanuts (I used lightly salted pumpkin seeds)
• 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 2/3 cup shredded coconut, toasted
• 1/3 cup wheat germ (I used ground flax seed)
• 3/4 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 egg, slightly beaten

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 15-1/2"x 10-1/2" jelly roll pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine oats, nuts, brown sugar, coconut and wheat germ and mix well.
3. Add pumpkin, butter, and egg and mix until are dry ingredients are moistened. Spread into the prepared jelly roll pan. Using an offset spatula helps even things out.
4. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown. While warm, cut into 1-1/2"x3" bars.

Notes

For crispier bars, remove the bars from the pan and let cool on a wire rack.

I think some cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice would be a nice addition to this recipe.

I keep extra pumpkin that I didn't need in a recipe, labeled and put into my freezer.

My youngest grandchild, Hayden, turned 7 this past week, and I was able to help with her Sleep Under party.   Kids wore their pj's but didn't spend the night.  They had pink baseball caps to decorate, jumping on the trampoline,  a scavenger hunt, tacos, cake, a movie with popcorn, and then home to bed.  It was a fun time with 11 girls and 1 boy.

Thank you for your visit!  xo

I'm sharing with these parties:

Talking About It Tuesdays

Love Your Creativity Link Party

Full Plate Thursday at Miz Helen's Country Cottage