Last week, post workout, I got a text from Jen, the owner of Living Fit Chicago, that said, “I have a treat for you.” I thought to myself, “Please food. Please food. Please food.”

It was, in fact, food. It was my first delicious taste of homemade energy bars. After a tough workout, they were exactly what I needed.

And so, I went in search of my own Energy Bar recipe and found one I liked from Cooking Light, so I modified it just a touch. Change up the dried fruit to make these your own for post-workout or snack time.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup uncooked old-fashioned rolled oats
• 3/4 cup uncooked quinoa
• 3/4 cup tart dried cherries, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup salted, dry-roasted almonds, chopped
• 1/3 cup flaked unsweetened coconut
• 4 tablespoons sunflower seeds
• 2 tablespoons flaxseed meal
• 1 ounce bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup unsalted creamy almond butter
• 8 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon grape seed oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Cooking spray

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. Toast oat and quinoa on a baking sheet for 8-10 minutes

 

3. Chop the dried cherries and toasted almonds. (You’ll notice that I’m using some mason jars below. That’s not to be cute and Pinterst-y, although look how cute and Pinterest-y it looks. It’s because I just realized my cooking supplies are dismal, and I needed to rely on my lone mason jar to measure. And I just added measuring cups to my wedding registry.)

4. Combine oats, quinoa, cherries, almonds, coconut, sunflower seeds, flaxseed meal and chocolate in a bowl.

5.  Cook almond butter, 6 TBS honey, oil, and salt in a small saucepan over medium heat for 1 minute. I don’t know about you, but I prefer that my honey come squeezed out of a bear.

6. Combine the sauce with the oat mixture and stir until all of the oat mixture is coated and all clumps in the sauce are broken up.

7. Smooshthe goop you’ve just created  – really try to flatten it – into an 8-inch square baking dish (my bakeware stash is equally pathetic, so I used the closest thing I had. A springform pan, which is not even kind of square. Round or square. Still delicious.) Coat your adult-person baking dish with cooking spray. I made a thin layer on honey top using about 2 TBS of honey. This, I theorized, would help hold all of my seeds and oats together. It worked!

8. Bake at 350° for 13 minutes or until lightly browned.

9. Cool completely in dish. Cut into 1 inch by 2-3 inch bars. They may be a little bit crumbly at the edges of the pan, but this is an opportunity to gather up those delicious crumbs and make a nice little stash of granola.

 

Store and enjoy when you’re hungry!