Thick and Chewy Cherry Almond Granola Bars

Granola is one of those foods that seems like a no-fail healthy option for breakfast or for a snack.  You've got plenty of fiber courtesy of wholesome oats, lots of good-for-you fruit, and heart healthy nuts like almonds.  It's a no brainer, right?

Wrong.  Oh my dear is it *usually* wrong.   A lot of processed granola that you'll find in the grocery store is swimming in sugar and yucky ingredients like high fructose corn syrup.  So much for a healthy  breakfast to get your day off to a great start.

While these bars do have some sugar in them (2/3 C for the whole pan), they have substantially less sugar than your average brand at Kroger and also use honey to add sweetness instead of just relying on granulated sugar.  And lord knows there isn't any high fructose corn syrup in these little guys.

Another favorite thing about this recipe is how infinitely adaptable it is.  You can use any fruit or nuts you like and can play around with using either almond or vanilla extract.  I used dried cherries, sliced almonds and then almond extract for my bars and have to admit that I thought they were a-mazing....even if I do say so myself :)  Put it this way...I took the pan of them up to my family's lake house one weekend not too long ago, and between just four of us we had polished off the whole pan in a day and a half.  Yikes!

My one gripe is that these were a bit crumbly and getting the sliced bars out of the pan was a bit of a cumbersome process.  Placing the pan in the fridge for a bit helped, but I still had to be very gentle with them.  Maybe next time I'll add a bit more peanut butter or honey to moisten them up even more and cut down on the crumbly texture.

The good news though...even if they crumbled to bits they still taste exactly the same.  And of course you could always completely forgo the bar route and just crumble these up into a bowl or sprinkle it on top of your favorite yogurt.

Dig in!  You won't regret making these.

Cherry Sauce

Growing up I always loved eating those maraschino cherries out of the jar at my grandparents' home.  You know, those bright red ones that always top off an ice cream sundae?  I would eat those like candy and then drink the juice in the jar.  Kind of gross, but they were oh so good at the time!  I'll still ask for a small cup of them any time I see them at a bar alongside the limes.

While I also love those big, plump cherries you can get in the summer, I always miss them when they're out of season.  Enter dried cherries.  While they definitely can't compare to the fresh, ripe fruit, they are great for adding delicious cherry flavor to dishes and desserts.

I had some dried cherries left over from some granola bars I made the previous weekend (that post is coming soon...promise!) and decided to figure out a way to incorporate them into my pork loin that was sitting in my freezer.  I've had cranberries with pork, but never cherries.

This sauce was incredibly easy to make and I loved the different flavor the cherries lent to the dish.  It was sweet, but the balsamic vinegar balanced that out perfectly.  I served the pork with the honey glazed carrots I posted last week, but next time I'm definitely going for some mashed potatoes.

And don't be shy about adding this sauce to something other than pork.  It would work great with turkey or chicken as well (I'm having a Thanksgiving vision....).

The recipe below is just for the sauce.  I seared and roasted my pork loin and simply added the sauce over it at the end.