No-bake Healthy Granola Bars

This is an easy and good recipe for granola bars that does not involve any baking, unless you want to toast the nuts and rolled oats. However, you do need a good food processor or blender. The granola bars taste like cookies, but are much healthier.


No-bake Healthy Granola Bars

1 cup dates, pitted (if they are hard, soak them in water for 10 minutes and then drain)
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 cup nuts, chopped
1-1/2 cups rolled oats

Process the dates in a food processor until they are ground up into almost a paste. If you want, toast the oats and nuts for 15 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees. Mix oats, nuts, and dates in a bowl. Warm the honey and peanut butter in the microwave for 1 minute. Stir until well mixed. Pour liquids over the oat mixture and stir until combined. Line a 8x8 pan with parchment paper and press the granola bar mixture into the pan. Place the pan in a fridge or freezer for at least 15 minutes or until hardened. Cut into bars and store in an airtight container, or freeze for later use.

You can customize this with fruit, spices, and other ingredients. I mixed in some mini-chocolate chips. However, I wasn't thinking very well and so when I poured the hot honey over the oats, it melted all the chocolate chips and turned the recipe into chocolate granola bars. These taste like the unbaked cookies in the recipe book (the cookies with cups and cups of sugar), but are much healthier.

The texture of these is not hard, but soft, almost gooey, especially if they sit out in the heat.

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