Fruit & Nut Energy Bars

A simple, healthy take on the traditional granola bar.

• 1/2 C Unsalted sunflower seeds
• 1/2 C Hulled pumpkin seeds
• 1/4 C Sesame seeds
• 4 C Puffed brown rice cereal or puffed wheat cereal
• 1 C Dried cranberries, unsweetened if you can find them!
• 1 C Liquid honey
• 1/2 tsp Salt

Bake seeds in oven for 5 min at 350F. Cool. Put in large, greased bowl. Add cereal and cranberries. Boil honey and salt on medium heat for 5 min (don’t stir!!). Start timing once the honey really starts to bubble. Add to seed & cereal mixture and stir evenly to coat. Press firmly into a greased 9×13 inch pan. Let cool. They cut easily into 18 or 24 bars. The bars won’t become completely hard like store-bought granola bars, but they will hold together pretty well, especially if you keep them chilled. I individually wrap mine in wax paper and store them in the fridge.

My favourite part about this recipe is that you can easily mix and match the ingredients. As long as the end product is approximately the same volume as the recipe above (6.25 cups), you really can’t go wrong! Last time I threw in a bunch of almonds and flax seeds, and next time I am going to use dried blueberries instead of cranberries.

Original recipe from Canadian Living.