Nut-Free Gluten-Free Granola Bars

I have been looking for a ‘granola’ type bar that I can send to my daughter’s nut-free school and that my gluten-free husband can also eat.  I found about a dozen different recipes and couldn’t find what I wanted.  I finally came upon one from thepaleomom.com that I tweaked just a bit to make  "Grandma" friendly. No sulphur in the dried fruit and no Soy Lecithin in the chocolate.  I used a brand of organic chocolate chips that don’t have soy in them at all. There are no oats in this recipe so I guess technically these are not granola bars but .... po-tae-toe, pot-ta-toe. . .

They taste great and I love that there is no refined sugar, just the dried fruit and some honey.  My daughter loves them and I wanted to eat the entire dozen before she got home from school.  As with many recipes you can change it up depending on what you have on hand.  The dried fruit could be just raisins, or a mixture of dates and apricots.  I used cranberries, pineapple and figs.  I think mango would taste great too.  Same thing with the seeds. Use pumpkin, sesame, hemp, chia, sunflower, poppy, whatever you have on hand.

Fruit and Seed “Granola” Bar

(Originally Nut-Free Paleo Chewy Granola Bars form thepaleomom.com, this is my "Grandma" version)

• 1 cup unsweetened non-sulphured Coconut, shredded
• ½ cup Pumpkin Seeds
• ¼ cup Sesame Seeds
• ¼ cup Organic Chocolate Chips (or regular chocolate chips without soy lecithin - soy is GMO)
• 1 cup non-sulphured dried fruit, chopped (I used cranberries, pineapple and figs)
• 2 TBSP Poppy Seeds
• 2 TBSP Chia Seeds
• 2 eggs
• 1 TBSP Honey
• 1 tsp real vanilla extract
• 1/8 tsp cinnamon

Directions

1. Mix the seeds, fruit and chocolate chips together in a large bowl.
2. In a smaller bowl beat the eggs. Add the vanilla, honey, cinnamon and mix well.
3. Add the wet ingredients into the fruit and seeds and mix well.
4. Fill a greased muffin tin with the mixture and press down firmly on each one.
5. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Leave them in the pan for 5 minutes and then let them cool on a rack.

I used a muffin tin for these but you could bake them in a square cake tin and cook for a few minutes longer.  Then cut them into what ever size you like once they have cooled for about 5 minutes or so.

 

Enjoy!