4 Ingredient Granola Bars

I'm a snacker. Not a big time snacker but every now and then I just need a bit of something to go with my coffee. And every now and then I really really want that snack to have some actual nutritional value.
I really like granola. Why does it have to be so expensive? Oatmeal is cheap, right?
Enter Pinterest.
Enter too many options.
Here's what happened. When I decided I should embark on making my own granola bars, I looked at all the options, and found a few several that I thought looked good, with ingredients I could handle, such as peanut butter, oatmeal, honey, flax...
Then I went to the store, (without the recipe) and got what I needed. Or thought I needed.
Here's why having all those options was a problem.
I had purchased components of several different recipes.
What now? I'm not going back to the store.
I decided it can't be that hard, and just decided to wing it.

Here's what I decided.

And here is the granola-bar secret:You just need to mix the right ratio of gooey with the right ratio of dry and you really can't go wrong.

So play with it, have fun, and don't get too hung up on ingredients if  you don't have all the "right" ones. Use what you like. Or don't. But I'll bet you'll enjoy them better if you do. Just sayin'.

So I had fun playing. I even tried a batch of no-bake ones and a batch of baked ones. They both were awesome.
I am going to actually post all three recipes that I made at some point, but for now, here's the batch that ought to be the healthiest.
Oh yeah, that was another thing, I really wanted them to be gluten-free, and not have a bunch of sugar or corn syrup... oats are already carbs after all.

Here's one with just 4 ingredients:
Dates (or prunes), flax-seeds, oats, honey

Puree the dates or prunes.

(my dates were old and a bit dry, so I stuck them in the microwave on high for about a minute and they pureed up so easily after that.)

They will look like this all minced up. If you use prunes, they will make more of a creamy brown paste. These are for your gooiness part of the recipe.

Mix fruit, seeds & oats.

Then mix the next ingredients 1 T  at a time, adding until you get the right consistency. You'll know its right when it presses together into a ball without crumbling.

TIP: To make up for my dry dates, I did add 1-2 T of peanut butter, but if you have fresh ingredients you shouldn't need the PB. Like I said, play with it and make it work for you. 

Spread into a 9x9 dish, pressing down with rubber spatula.

Bake at 350 for 10 min.

Cut and eat. A 9x9 pan makes about 8 bars.

1/2 C dates or prunes, pureed
1/4 C flax-seed
1 C oats
1-2 T honey
1-2 T water (ok, yes that's 5 ingredients, but since it's water, I just didn't think we needed to count it.) 

Puree dates or prunes
Mix fruit, seeds & oats.
Then mix the next ingredients 1 T  at a time, adding until you get the right consistency. You'll know its right when it presses together into a ball without crumbling.
Spread into a 9x9 dish.
Bake at 350 for 10 min.
Cut and eat. A 9x9 pan makes about 8 bars.