Chocolate Date and Nut Bars!

Hi Everyone! 

This weekend my boyfriend and I were looking for things for him to take to work for lunch. He works in an office and he usually brings left overs and some fruit, but he just needs one more thing, one more power filled snack to get him through the rest of his day and it was a challenge figuring out what that could be. At first we thought mixed nuts, and then we thought granola bars... but my boyfriend is pretty high maintenance. He is prone to getting sores in his mouth, cause by the weirdest things; oats, walnuts, sesame seeds, peanuts, coconut.... So as you can see pretty much all store bought granola bars and nut mixes are off the table. In the end is it such a bad thing? All the store bought ones he wants are full of sugar and when you buy the nut and fruit mixes there are often lots of sugar or salt on the fruit and nuts. 

So I went on a mission: To make home made granola bars that tasted delicious and were good for you. But I could only use almonds or cashews. I looked at so many different granola bar recipes on pinterest. But soooo many had oats in them. It was really hard to try and find one that met all of our requirements, but I did find a few that I wanted to try.

Today I made Chocolate Date and Nut Bars from A Tasty Love Story's Cocoa & Cashew Bars. I essentially made these according to their recipe, but as I don't have a scale I changed the measurements to cups. In the future I would make some changes. I don't think the coconut oil is entirely necessary and might remove it as just two tablespoons adds 28 grams of fat. I would also add some chia, flax or hemp seeds to try and up the protein in them. But for now, if my boyfriend likes them, then I will be happy and ready to change them up for the next round. These are Vegan, Paleo, Gluten Free, Refined Sugar Free, and could easily be made oil free. I look forward to trying a different kind of granola bar for next week!

Isn't it a great rich colour?

Chocolate Date and Nut Bars

Makes 8 bars, alternatively could roll into little energy balls.

1/2 Cup Cashews

1/2 Cup Almonds

1 1/2 Cup Dates (I used matazafi dates as they are really soft and gooey)

2 Tbsp Cocoa Powder

2 Tbsp Coconut Oil

1/2 Tsp Vanilla Extract

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F and roast nuts for 15-20 minutes, until lightly browned.
2. Blend Almonds in food processor or blender until finely chopped/semi ground, remove and place in medium sized bowl.
3. Blend Cashews for a shorter amount of time, just until roughly chopped remove and place in bowl with almonds
4. Place remaining ingredients in the blender or food processor and blend. I'll admit my blender did not handle this very well, I did as much as I could and then I just put them in the bowl with the nuts.
5. Mix the nuts and date mixture together in a bowl until you get a well mixed sticky dough. I used my hands and this was a sticky delicious mess. 
6. Place mixture in a lined pan, I used an 8x8 square pan, press the mixture down into a firm square with a spatula and place in the fridge to set for 1-2 hours. 
7. Remove from the pan and cut into desired shapes, I cut mine into 8 bars.

Nutrion Facts

1 serving = 1/8 of the recipe

Calories: 237

Protein: 4.25g

Fat: 11.34 g

The bars are full of whole foods that do nothing but feed your body exactly what it needs. They are great to grab if you missed breakfast and you need to run, or for a pre or post workout snack...or if your boyfriend just to get you to the end of your work day. I think that I met my goal of a healthy granola bar that my boyfriend will enjoy, we'll find out today after we go to the gym! 

Cinnamon

xx

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