Cooking and baking help me relax after a long day. I spent this past weekend out-of-town, and last night I needed to just relax and unwind (and unpack and do laundry but baking sounded better than unpacking and laundry:).

Sometimes I challenge myself to come up with a recipe using only the ingredients I already have in my pantry. That’s how this recipe came about. Kind of a cross between baked oatmeal and granola. Anyway they are super yummy. And I am always for anything that is super yummy. Life is hard enough. Why make it worse by eating non-yummy(I just created this word) food? I digress. Let’s make some granola bar cookies.

Granola Cookie Bars, adapted from Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies from allrecipes.com

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup apple sauce
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 3 cups quick-cooking oats
• 1/2  cup chopped sliced almonds
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, apple sauce, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture until just blended. Mix in the quick oats, almonds, chocolate chips and dried cranberries. Spread the dough evenly in a 13×9 baking pan.

Bake for 35-40 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow bars to cool in 13×9 pan for 20 minutes before cutting and transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an air tight container.