Super Simple Whole Food Granola Bars
Remember that meme about Nature Valley granola bars? It was the same green package we all know and love but instead of “Nature Valley” it said “Effing Crumbs Everywhere”.
It’s funny, cause its TRUE.
And if you think those bars were bad, just try to make a granola bar at home that doesn’t crumble into bits. Especially convenient when you bring them on an airplane (I would like to formally apologize to whoever had to clean that up, I tried my best to pickup the individual beads of quinoa with my fingers).
Lara bars are the glorious exception to this crumbly granola bar dilemma. But at $5 for a box of 5, they don’t exactly fit into my trimmmmm grocery budget.
SO, I make them! But I cut down the intense sweetness of the dates with oats. The recipe goes like this:
1 cup dates
1 cup oats (steel cut, old fashioned, or quick)
1 cup nuts (pecans, almonds, cashews, peanuts, pistachios, walnuts, etc)
And it’s incredibly versatile. You can use whatever you have on hand as the base, and even more of whatever you have on hand to customize the flavor. Some of our favorite combos:
1/2 cup chopped dried apples + 1 cinnamon
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut + 1/4 cup cocoa powder + 1 tablespoon coconut oil
1/2 cup unsweetened tart cherries + 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup unsweetened dried cranberries + 1/2 cup white chocolate chips (especially good with pistachios as the nut)
These guys have a delicious chewy texture and stick together well after slicing. I would even go so far as to call them portable. I hope you’ll give me a try! What flavor combination sounds best to you?
