NUTTY COCONUT CRANBERRY BARS



 

 

Many of you know that we love homemade bars here at A Simply Raw Life, this time though, I wanted to try one that was slightly different. I was inpsired by these bars I saw on Ascension Kitchen.  These looked so good and they turned out to be more versitile than I thought. Thanks Lauren!  Super delicious... Check it out...



NUTTY COCONUT CRANBERRY BARS

 

Note:  Remember that it's is preferrable to soak the almonds and cashews first and then dehydrated until they are dry to activatge your nuts and seeds, which give you added nutritional benefits.  Of course, if you don't have time or do not have a dehyrator, this recipe still works just as fine.

1 cup of raw almonds
½ cup of shredded coconut
1 cup of cashews
½ cup of dried cranberries
¼ cup of hemp seeds
¼ cup of chia seeds
¼ cup of coconut butter
¼ cup of raw honey
4 tablespoons of coconut oil
4 Medjool dates
pinch of sea salt
Zest of one lemon

 

In the food processor, chop up the almonds for a quick second to chop them into smaller pieces.  Add the coconut, cashews and chopped a little more for a few seconds.  Transfer the mixture into a large bowl.  Add the hemp and chia seeds.

 

In the food processor add the coconut butter, honey, coconut oil, dates, salt and lemon.  Mix together unitl well combined into a nice paste.  Now combine this mixture to the dry mixure and and fold it in with your hands combining it well.

 

Press the mixture well into a 8" x 8" baking dish that is lined with parchment paper and chill in the freezer for 1 hour.  Now it's ready to be cut and eaten!  Makes about 10 bars.

 

Store the remaining bars in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

 



I also have used these bars as grawnola and crumbled it on top of a smoothie bowl, ice cream, and fruit.  In the photo above, I topped it on my Chocolate Almond Milk Ice Cream.  So delicious!

Enjoy!

Join the discussion!

If you have a favorite dairy free ice cream recipe, feel free to share it in the comments below. Links are welcome!

 



ENERGY BARS

True Confessions.....I am a single mother and I don't have time....like ever, so I try to make recipes that give me the most bang for the buck.   I like these energy bars because they are a great snack that gets me over the 3 o'clock hump, and they last a while in my house.  You can find the original recipe for the Energy Bars here.  This time I made them more of a fruity chewy bar.

I wanted to try some different fruit combinations so I used dried blueberries, dried apricots, shredded coconut, and some ginger chews that I stubled across at Trader Joe's, this is what they look like here.

Some time saving tips that I learned along the way:

*I use a lot of whole nuts, and chopped about 1/3.  

*Blend the nuts first that you want to chop, then the dates.  

*Remember to use a food processor.  A blender will not work, it will turn the nuts into butter too soon, and it's torture to clean the dates off of the blades  (this I learned the hard way),  and who has time for that?

*Also parchment paper is your best friend.  Use it to line your cookie sheet to have less clean up.

*Also once the bars are cut wrap them individually in saran wrap.  This will save you a lot of time when you are daily preparing your snack, just pop one out of the freezer and your ready to go!

This recipe is very versatile so the same guidelines apply, I just used different ingredients.  

Here's what I used:

FRUITS:

Dried Blueberries

Dried Apricots

Shredded Coconut

Crystalized Ginger (found at Trader Joe's)

NUTS:

Cashews
Sliced Almonds
Macadamia

LEMON-COCONUT TOFU BARS

Lemon-Coconut Tofu Bars

Howdy Britney here!  Well one thing that you should know about me is that I am a lover of all things citrusy and tart!  And one thing I sometimes miss are lemon bars.  So when I stumbled upon this recipe I knew I had met my match.

What I love about this recipe is that the crust is savory and rich, the lemon filling is smooth and creamy.  And with hints of the lemon zest it’s a perfect combination of savory, sweet and tart.

This is the original recipe from Whole Living.

*please see my note, because I changed a few things from the original recipe. 

The Components

LEMON-COCONUT TOFU BARS

 

THE CRUST

1/2 c. coconut oil, melted, plus more for brushing

1/4 c. cane sugar

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/4 tsp coarse salt

1 1/2 c. whole-wheat pastry flour

THE FILLING

1/2 c. silken tofu

3/4 c. cane sugar

1 Tbsp grated lemon zest

1/4 c. lemon juice

1/4 tsp baking powder

2 Tbsp whole-wheat pastry flour

THE PROCESS

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Brush an 8-inch square baking dish with oil, then line with parchment, leaving an overhang, and brush parchment with oil.  Set aside.  

Make crust: Stir together 1/2 cup oil, sugar, vanilla, and salt.  Add flour and stir until just combined.  Press dough into prepared dish and bake until pale golden-brown, about 20 minutes.  

Meanwhile, make filling: Process tofu, sugar, lemon zest and juice, baking powder, and flour in a high speed blender (I used my Vitamix) and process until smooth.  Pour onto baked crust and bake until set, 25 to 30 minutes more.  Let cool completely, then sprinkle with coconut flakes.

**NOTE:  Ok, so I made a few alterations to this recipe.  First for the crust I used raw sugar.  The first time I used raw sugar in the filling as well as the crust.  This gave a more caramel hue to the filling instead of a more lemony yellow color I was going for.  So the second time I used raw sugar for the crust, and cane sugar for the filling which gave the bars a bit more of the lemony yellow hue I was going for.  Also the crust was thick and was about 1:1 with the filling.  I don’t know about you but I can’t get enough of the filling so I doubled the filling to give me a better crust to filling ratio!  (I understand I probably sound ridiculous talking about crust to filling ratio, but it is important to me :)  Also I let it bake about 35 minutes instead of the suggested 25-30 minutes since I doubled the filling.  And then instead of dusting it with confectioners’ sugar I opted for some shredded coconut.  And last thing is that I like my lemon bars on the cold side so I freeze them, and then keep them in the fridge.

That's it can you say DELISH?

RAW: HOME MADE ENERGY BARS

  

I love these bars! These home made energy bars are so good, I make them just about every other week, if not every week.  The fabulous thing about this is that you can make many varieties by just switching out a few ingredients.  This recipe is super easy, so here it goes...

INGREDIENTS:

16 oz pitted dates (These were from Trader Joe's and I just used the whole package.)
1-1/2 cup dried cherries (If you buy them at Trader Joe's use the whole package.)

1/2 cup dried coconut

1/2 cup pepitas

1/2 cup cashews
1/2 cup pistachios
3 table spoons chia seeds

Note:  I got all the ingredients at Trader Joes, all except for the coconut.  (I think we all need to write them to ask them to stock the coconut for us!)

Blend the dates and the cherries in the food processor until blended.  It will be very, very sticky.  Transfer it into a blow and then mix in all the other ingredients.  Wet your hands slightly and knead and fold the ingredients togehter by hand.  It will be tough but if you knead and fold it will eventually all be mixed togeher. 

Tip, don't put in too many dry ingredients, it will make it more difficult to fold and mold.

Press the ball of ingredients into a wax paper lined 9" x 13" baking pan.  Chill for 1 hour in the freezer and then cut into bars.  I like to store these in the refrigerator, it keeps them at a nice firm consistency.

Voila! 

I know you will love these and make them as much as I do.

Process pitted dates and cherries.

I love the information I found about dates at LIVESTRONG.COM... I think dates are my new favorite go to sweet treat.  Also, check out these nutritional points about dates if you need a little convincing.

Also, a side note about Chia Seeds, one tablespoon will give you 3 grams of protein, 6 grams of fiber, and 2.9 grams of omega-3 fatty acids.  What a powerful little seed!



Knead all ingredients together.

Press into 9" x 13" pan



Close Up...



So yummy!