Chocolate Almond Granola Bars

YUM!!! That’s what you will say when you bite into one of these delicious, nutritious granola bars.

My inspiration for this recipe came from a bar made by Kashi called the Chocolate Almond, Sea Salt & Chia Chewy Granola Bars. They are good, but have sugar and a few other ingredients I wanted to stay away from.

My bar has no cane sugar and I skip the chocolate chunks – instead I use Agave for the sweetner and Cacoa Bits for the chocolate chunks.

Super easy to make, the most difficult part about making these bars will be waiting a few hours before eating – ENJOY!

2 cups rolled oats (gluten-free)

1/2 cup raw almonds

4 dates

2 TBSP chia seeds

2 TBSP cacoa bits

1/4 cup shredded coconut

1/2 cup ground flax seeds

2 TBSP chocolate protein powder

2 TBSP psyllium powder

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp sea salt

3/4 cup tahini (or other nut butter)

1/2 cup agave

Using a food processor, add 1 1/2 cup of the oats, almonds and dates. Blend until the ingredients are chopped finely.

In a medium-sized mixing bowl add the oat/almond/date mixture with all the other dry ingredients.

In a separate mixing bowl, blend the tahini and agave.

Take the tahini mixture and add it to the oat/seed mixture and blend well.

Line an 9 x 10 pan with parchment paper, scoop the mixture into the pan and press down firmly. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

After 2 hours remove the entire block from the pan and cut into bars. ENJOY!  These are so yummy — and they are nutritious! Who says you can’t eat chocolate for breakfast?

The phyllium and ground flax seed is what holds the bars together, when these ingredients become moist they will expand and bind the bars. This is why it is important to wait a couple hours before eating. This will allow the ingredients to swell and bind together.

This makes 12 large bars or 24 small bars. A small bar only has 100 calories!