Homemade Granola Bars

Today, I was sitting on the couch, thinking about what I would pack for my work lunches this week. It dawned on me that grab & go granola bars would be perfect. But my problem is, I don't really like store-bought granola bars. I tend to get tired of flavors really quickly, I get bored of them halfway through eating them, & they're also packaged individually (which is something I try to avoid, as much as I can). So today, I challenged myself to make my own granola bar recipe. I started by looking up some base recipes, then tweaked them into my own.

These bars turned out super great! They were minimal effort & pretty healthy. One tip I would have would be to make sure your bananas are very ripe. The bananas I used today were barely ripe. The bars would have definitely turned out way better with overripe bananas. This recipe can also be vegan friendly if you use agave instead of honey. (I used a scale to weigh out some of my ingredients).

Ingredients: (yield: a full 9x9 pan)

• 150g rolled oats
• 50g sunflower seeds
• 100g pumpkin seeds
• 4 chopped overripe banas
• 8 pitted dates
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsp chia seeds
• 30g almonds
• 2 tbsp cacao nibs
• Coconut oil (for greasing the pan)
• 9x9 cake pan

Steps:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
2. Grind almonds & dates in blender or food processor
3. Add chopped bananas, salt, & cinnamon into blender & blend
4. In a separate bowl, combine oats, seeds, honey, chia seeds, & cacao nibs
5. Add banana puree to the dry ingredients & combine thoroughly (I recommend using a silicone spatula)
6. Grease a 9x9 pan with coconut oil
7. Pour batter into pan & flatten out evenly
8. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes
9. Let cool, then slice into squares or rectangles & store in the fridge