5 Minute No Bake Nutty Butter Chocolate Chunk Granola Bars

First of all Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there! I’m definitely missing my dad these days but I’ll be seeing him soon!

 

The title of these bars is a bit of a mouthful but they are very delicious! I found this bar recipe from healthy food blogger Anne at fANNEtastic Food. I love her blog because she incorporates healthy food and fitness. She stays true to who she is and I respect that. Her blog is very motivating and it motivated me to try her 5 Minute No Bake Peanut Butter Bars. I took her original recipe and tweaked it with ingredients I had on hand. They are a really tasty granola bar and they really do only take 5 minutes to make. The only thing I didn’t like about them is the chia seeds! I might just reduced the amount next time because they get stuck everywhere in your mouth. I had one on my break during work one day and I’m so glad I had a toothpick to pluck them out ;). I didn’t want to scare away customers!

They are a very soft granola bar as well, unless it was the nut butter I used. They fall apart easily, even if you keep them in the fridge. I’m going to add them to the freezer and she if that helps. I also added some extra salt to the mix because I was worried they would taste bland. Wrong!! Mine are a bit salty but in a good way since the dark chocolate balances it out. Dark Chocolate always makes everything taste better. Enjoy!

5 Minute No Bake Nutty Butter Chocolate Chunk Granola Bars
Adapted from fANNEtastic Food (link to original recipe)

Ingredients
1 & 3/4 cup gluten free rolled oats
1 cup crisp puffed wheat cereal (brown rice cereal works too!)
1/4 cup pepita seeds
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup chia seeds
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut
1/8 cup ground flaxseed
1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)
1/2 cup brown rice syrup
1/3 cup Nuttzo Peanut Free (creamy peanut butter would work best)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 100 calorie dark chocolate bar (Trader Joe’s Brand) OR 1/8 cup dark chocolate chips

Directions
Add all the dry ingredients (oats to flaxseed) to a large bowl and mix them together.

In a separate (microwave safe) bowl, mix together the brown rice syrup, nut butter and vanilla extract. Microwave for 30 seconds. This will make it easier to mix and add to the dry ingredients since it’s really sticky.

Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix. Keep mixing until the wet binding ingredients are distributed all the way. This will take a few minutes but is well worth it. As Anne would say, put some muscle into it!

Pour the mixture into a shallow pan and flatten down. Top with chocolate and transfer to the fridge to harden up and then cut into 12 bars.

 

If you noticed I used Nuttzo Peanut Free in the bars, probably not a good idea either. There were already chia seeds in this nut butter and I added more. I don’t think the taste of this nut butter did much for the bars either. Creamy peanut butter or almond butter that has been roasted and a little salt would taste so much better!

 

Enjoy!

Fallon