One of the main reasons I started eating clean was when I realized that all prepackaged food was full of mystery ingredients. I don’t know about you, but there is something unsettling when I can’t pronounce an ingredient in something I’m eating.

Sure, you can buy “all natural, organic” this and that, but let’s be real, that will actually break your bank. When was the last time you walked into a Whole Foods and left feeling great about how much you saved on all those organic groceries? Oh wait, I know the answer to that….Never! A simple way to fix this issue is to start making your own clean and healthy food from scratch.

A couple weeks ago I set out on a mission to create a homemade granola bar recipe. I work long hours at a bar and need something that will keep me fueled and satisfied into the wee hours of the night – I tried bringing in fruits and veggies, but it wasn’t enough. I needed something that would fill my stomach, but not overdue the carbs, sugar, etc. After a little research/trial and error I developed these delicious, semi-gooey, no-bake “Cocoa Nut Bars”

Ingredients

• ½ cup of chopped almonds (you can either buy pre-chopped or put them in a food processor, I prefer the easy way out)
• ¼ cup of coconut flakes
• 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder
• ½ teaspoon of sea salt
• 1 tablespoon of unsalted almond butter (I like to use raw)
• 1 tablespoon of honey
• 1 cup of oats
• ½ cup of flax meal
• 1 cup of pitted Mejool dates

Instructions

1. Prep: Line a baking pan with wax paper and set aside
2. Coarsely chop oats in a food processor. You want a good mix of whole oats, pieces and some ground to almost a flour consistency
3. Add the coconut flakes and chop for just a few seconds
4. Once ground, mix oats, coconut flakes, flax meal, cocoa powder and almonds in a mixing bowl and set aside
5. Once you have pitted the dates, put them in the food processor and mix until you get a paste-like consistency
   • NOTE: Don’t be alarmed by the noises the food processor makes at first – I initially thought mine was exploding
6. Scoop the date paste into the same mixing bowl as the dry ingredients and start to mash everything together with your hands. Don’t even bother trying to use a utensil it won’t work
7. When the ingredients are mixed as best as you can wash off those hands and put the almond butter and honey into a saucepan on medium heat until melted into a creamy sauce
8. Let the honey and almond butter sauce cool for just a minute, then pour over your date-oat-cocoa mixture and kneed everything together thoroughly
9. Transfer mixture to the lined baking pan and use your knuckles to flatten everything to a ¼ of an inch rectangular shape
10. Once flattened sprinkle the top of the granola with coarse sea-salt
11. Cover with another sheet of wax paper and put in the fridge to set
12. After about 30 minutes you can take out the granola and cut it into your desired ‘bar’ size
13. Store in fridge, and grab on the go at your leisure!

I wrap each one individually in wax paper, then tinfoil so they are my very own pre-packed granola bars 🙂 A little salty and a little sweet, but absolutely awesome!

❤ the fit bitch