Gluten Free Coconut Oat Date Bars

These bars are quick and simple to make without any baking required. They are free of gluten and refined sugars.

Ingredients

1/2 cup pecans

6 coconut date rolls

1/2 cup gluten free oat flour (You can buy oat flour at the store but I ground regular oats in my food processor. I like the coarse consistency better than the fine flour.)

1 Tbs brown rice syrup

1 tsp coconut sugar
pinch of salt

3 Tbsp dark chocolate chips

Instructions

In a food processor, blend pecans until crumbly. Set aside in a large bowl.

 Next, add coconut date rolls to food processor and blend until a dough forms. 

Add dough to bowl with ground pecans and add all remaining ingredients. This gets messy but fun. Mix well to combine with your hands.

Line a 9x9 inch pan with wax paper and add the mixture. 

Use your hands to press it down evenly throughout the pan. 

Place in freezer for at least 30 minutes. 

Remove from pan and slice for desired size of bars. 

I like to store these bars in the fridge. The cooler temperature keeps them firm and gives the chocolate a nice crunch. These bars are great for breakfast, a snack, or an even sweeter treat crumbled over yogurt or ice cream.

If you feel like sharing you can wrap them up and give them to your friends. I took some over to my friend Wallace's house tonight. 

Breakfast Bars... kind of

Another reason why I love Mondays... I have the whole morning and early afternoon free. This gives me time to play around in my kitchen and create what ideas and recipes I think up in my head. As you know, I love all things sweet. For breakfast I usually try and stick with veggies. Just ask my boss. She always makes fun of me (in a joking way of course) for bringing my steamed kale to the kitchen in the mornings. I always feel better starting out my day eating that way but sometimes I just want something sweet for breakfast. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with that, as long as it's prepared using wholesome ingredients and no sugar. Thank you stevia and yacon once again for making this possible. This morning I attempted to make no bake breakfast bars I had been thinking about. 

Cinnamon Carob Almond Breakfast Bars

They didn't come out exactly how I imagined... Revisions will be made for these.  Being a bit on the crumbly side they made a great topping for my yogurt. Here is the recipe if anyone would like to try them out. Modifications or suggestions are always welcome : )

1/2 cup blanched almond flour

2 Tablespoons ground flax

1 Tablespoon chia seeds

2 Tablespoons almond butter

2 Tablespoons cinnamon flaxseed oil*

15 drops stevia

1 teaspoon yacon syrup

1/8 cup unsweetened carob chips

In a bowl combine almond flour, flax, and chia seeds. Mix in almond butter.  The mixture will start to get crumbly. Add in remaining ingredients except for carob chips. Once the mixture turns into a ball of dough you can add in carob chips. 

*I use Barleans cinnamon flax oil. This stuff is amazing in smoothies. If you just have regular flax oil, add in 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon... I think that would work just fine.

Place on cutting board and form into a rectangle "bar" shape.

I placed in the fridge to let sit. This was only for about 5 minutes because I was so hungry. This recipe does contains a lot of fat from the nut flour, butter, seeds, and flax oil so you don't need much. This recipe yields 4 servings.

Happy Monday everyone! Enjoy your week.