Living out of our Pantry: mint chocolate granola bars

For the past month we have been living out of our pantry.  We like to do this every once in awhile when our cupboards get so full we can't find anything.  So, we started the month with buying all the basics (flour, sugar, cheese, butter, etc.), but resolved that we would not purchase any "extras" like crackers, cookies or chips.  We don't buy a ton of that anyway, but we somehow managed to have very FULL cupboards.  We had purchased 3 big boxes of cheerios at Costco when they had a coupon awhile back, so we had backup breakfast or snack for when we would need it, as we still had 2 boxes left.
 For us, this is obviously easiest to do in the summer time.  Our garden has a bounty of zucchini, squash, and  tomatoes, and we have very generous neighbors who let us pick fruit from their fruit trees.
Since living out of our pantry, I have had to be a little more creative with our snacks and meals.  I make granola bars regularly.  My youngest would eat granola bars for breakfast lunch and dinner if I let him.  Usually I like to add a few chocolate chips (preferably the mini ones).  But, we used up all of our chocolate chips (and white chocolate chips) that I had on hand last week.  Then I found a bag of andes mint chips (Um, can we say, YUMMY!).  I have experimented with a lot of different granola bar recipes, and I have a recipe that I have recipe that I love, but, I wasn't sure if the mint chocolate chips would be good, as the recipe calls for peanut butter.  Sounded a little strange to me.  But, then in my cupboard next to the peanut butter was nutella.  Now, that sounded delicious!!  So, I decided to try swapping out the peanut butter for the nutella.  This recipe originally came from thebusynothings.blogspot.com.
Here is my adapted version:)

Mint Chocolate Chip Granola Bars:
Preheat oven to 350
~2 1/3 cups oats
~1/4-1/2 cup brown sugar (depending on how sweet you like)
~1/3 cup ground flax seed
~1/4 tsp cinnamon
~3/4 cup andes mint chips
~1/2 cup coconut
Mix these ingredients together in a large bowl, set aside.  In a small bowl, mix together:
~2 Tablespoons nutella
~1/2 cup applesauce
~3 Tablespoons melted butter
~1 tsp vanilla
~1/4 cup honey, heaping
Add this to the dry ingredients and stir to combine.  Line a 9X9 pan with parchment paper and press mixture FIRMLY into pan.  Bake for 25-30 minutes.  Once cooled, put them in the fridge to let them set.  Wrap individually and freeze.
Hope you enjoy them!