I’m a sucker for a granola bar or an AMAZING power bar. The problem is, a lot of the stuff you get at the supermarket is loaded with HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) or there just isn’t enough of the good stuff. I usually end up scanning every box for a healthy-ish brand OR I buy the yummy (although, expensive) Whole Foods in-store bars.
But that is no longer thanks to Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson who also runs the amazing website 101 Cookbooks that features great natural/whole/vegetarian recipes. I totally have a food crush on her and you should for sure check out her cookbook. I got it from the publisher a few months ago and browse it regularly for ideas.
Side note: She has a great recipe for crusty white beans with kale. it’s my fave dish almost ever.
Anyways… power bars. They were super simple to make… kind of like haute rice krispie squares. I’ve pasted the recipe below.
I of course made substitutions… this recipe just cries out for them! I substituted about 1/4 cup of the walnuts for unsalted sunflower seeds and added about 1/4 cup of ground flax seeds. Instead of natural cane sugar I used regular brown sugar (I didn’t feel like going to the other health food store). Finally I skipped the brown crisped rice cereal in favour of regular old Rice Krispies.
They turned out great. At first I was going to swap out the Brown Rice Syrup for something else but I wasn’t sure what that something else would be, so instead I just went with it. Now I want to discover all of the uses for this magical syrup. I love that it’s not overly sweet and has a slight nuttiness to it
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon coconut oil (it’s to grease the pan… I just used cooking spray)
1 1/4 cups rolled oats
1 cup walnuts or nut of your choice(toasted and chopped)
1/2 cup oatbran
1 1/2 cups crisped brown rice cereal
1 cup chopped dried cranberries
3 tablespoons finely chopped crystallized ginger
1 cup brown rice syrup
1/4 cup unrefined cane sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
Method:
- First grease a 9″ x 13″ baking pan with the coconut oil
- In a bowl gather the next seven dry ingredients.
- In a small saucepan stir together the remaining ingredients over a medium heat until they start to bubble and boil and thicken slightly.
- Pour the hot liquid in with the dry ingredients and mix until they are fully coated in the syrup.
- press down the mixture in the baking pan and leave to cool.
- cut into bars before serving
(I borrowed the typed out version of this recipe from this website which of course got it from the book.)
