It’s about time we got some granola bars in our lives.
I always have a ton of recipes in my backlog of things to cook, and granola bars have been on them for a few weeks. I made a similar one with quinoa here, but wanted to try something new. I mashed up a few recipes I saw, including this baked one and this chewy one, but made them my own because I wanted to use the tahini and hemp seeds I had on hand! The whole no bake thing also sounded good, and fast, so I went that route. And because I didn’t have chocolate chips (sad, unheard of), I went with a DRIZZLE!
No bake granola bars or balls are pretty straightforward to make. You start with your dry ingredients –
Then mix away.
Melt your wet ingredients (tahini or nut butter, maple or honey, vanilla) like so (that swirl!)
Mix this in with the dry ingredients until well combined. It will look a bit crumbly like the picture below, but once you press the mixture into a pan tightly, it will come together.
Once you’ve pressed the oat mixture, you can TOP IT!! You’ll see that I drizzled chocolate on top – totally recommend! Chocolate chips inside would be even better 🙂 The drizzle was a good compromise with my husband, who doesn’t like chocolate quiiiiite as much as me. Just mix it all up – press into pan – drizzle – fridge it – then…
Cut into bars!
And then enjoy all week 🙂
- 1 and ½ cups rolled oats
- ¼ cup hemp seeds
- ¼ cup finely shredded coconut
- ¼ cup mini chocolate chips
- 3 Tablespoons nuts (I used sliced almonds)
- 2 Tablespoons chia seeds
- 2 Tablespoons ground flax seeds
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup tahini
- ¼ cup maple syrup (1/3 cup for sweeter bars)
- 1 teaspoon coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Line a 9-inch square pan with parchment paper. In a large bowl combine the dry ingredients (oats, hemp seeds, coconut, nuts, chia seeds, flax seeds, cinnamon, salt and chocolate chips if using).
- Heat a small saucepan over medium low heat and add in wet ingredients (maple syrup, tahini, coconut oil, and vanilla). Stir until everything is melted and combine.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry mixture and stir, stir, stir until coated. It may not seem like enough at first but will come together nicely.
- Transfer the granola mix to the pan and spread evenly until the pan is filled. Press down firmly to pack in the bars - this will make sure that they stick together. I used the top of a lid to pat them down firmly. Once they are flat, you can drizzle them with melted chocolate*.
- Place the pan in the fridge for 1-2 hours to firm up. Once firm, cut into even squares or thin bars. These should keep nicely in the fridge for a week or so - I like to wrap them individually and bring as snacks!
You could leave out any of the seeds if you don't have them on hand - the oats, maple, and tahini are the main ingredients! You can add other chopped nuts if you like in place of them.
If you try these out, or any other variations, let me know how they turn out! Bon appetit.
in this (1 scoop, 9g of protein) for protein. You can use another protein powder, but adjust the sweetness/flavors accordingly. I personally have been loving collagen not just for the protein aspect but all the other good 
blend would be great too). Note: they are *perfect* with the original recipe, but I was SO excited about how good they turned out with these changes. And by good I mean flaky, butter and TALL! That’s usually a problem with non-white flour baking – things don’t seem to rise or brown as well. These guys, though, no problem. Serve with butter and jam and you’ll be SET.
one, so you are working with those deep muffin pockets. I need to try regular muffins in this pan…I think they would be divine!
. Then arugula, peaches, and corn on top. I kept the dressing light to let the produce flavors shine through. We had limes laying around so I made a lime vinaigrette, adding in olive oil, honey, a bit of mustard (to hold everything together), salt and pepper. The lime and honey was a perfect complement to the juicy peaches. I loved how well the salad piled up with the zucchini ribbons 🙂
(a lot of it), mixed with a can of coconut milk and just cooked the chicken overnight for about 8 hours. I added in the red pepper and some broccoli during the last 30 minutes to cook a little (but not be overcooked). Added a splash of rice vinegar and lime juice at the end as well, but just the curry paste and coconut milk is great!
– it really helps prevent from overcooking, especially for fish!
Who would’ve thought we’d want something this frosty and cold in early March…it’s still winter after all. Except here in D.C. the weather has been seasonably warm! No wonder the cherry blossoms are coming early this year.
), chia seeds, hemp seeds and coconut. A perfect breakfast if you’re looking for something on the sweet side but not too heavy.
or 
to have with my yogurt this week but we had already maxed our grocery budget for the month, hehe. I secretly don’t mind because it means a bit of pantry clean out and creativity!
That was stuck in my head because Mr. P has been singing it here and there…but also because I get excited about sharing things like this amazing soup!!! This recipe is a throwback to college (I still have the paper print out) and still one of my favorites. It was originally inspired by one of my best friend’s visits to Rev Soup in Charlottesville, but now we have a recipe to call our own! It’s creamy // comforting // spicy // and delicious. Need I say more?
. So good. I made the meat the night before to do a little meal prep and it worked out great – I just ate it on its own with a little avocado and salad for dinner, and then I didn’t have to cook it the next day! I got two pounds of meat (!) and cooked it all up at once so we could have this throughout the week as leftovers. Just this + sauce is delicious on its own.
for my almond flour, a change from my usual Trader Joe’s almond meal. This definitely helped give the muffins a lighter texture!
