Healthy No Bake Breakfast Bars

These easy no bake bars are very versatile. Change up the nuts and seeds and add dried fruit. You can even use green tea in the recipe to get those healthy antioxidants!

Ingredients:
1 cup chopped dates
1  1/2 cups oats
1/2 cup nuts like almonds, walnuts, pecans, roughly chopped
1/2 cup seeds like sunflower, sesame, flaxseed
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup almond or peanut butter

Begin by toasting the oats and nuts in a 350 F oven for 10-15 minutes. While they toast soak the chopped dates in water to re-hydrate them. You can soak them in brewed green tea for that extra boost of antioxidant goodness.

Drain the dates and either mix by hand or process in a food processor until it forms a ball.

I'm showing two different batches in the pics to follow. For this one I used a loosely packed cup of chopped dates and I added the oats, nuts and seeds to the food processor.

In this batch I had a very well packed cup of chopped dates (so alot more dates!) and I mixed the dates, oats, nuts and seeds by hand.

Once you have your dates, oats, nuts and seeds mixed, combine the maple syrup and almond or peanut butter in a small bowl. Microwave a few seconds (10-20) to warm then blend into the mix.

Line an 8 X 8" pan with parchment paper and press the mix in. Cover the top of the bars with another piece of parchment or plastic wrap and press down firmly with something flat-bottomed, rubbing back and forth to even it out.

Refrigerate 15-20 minutes before cutting into bars. 

This is the one with less dates and mixed together in the food processor.

And this is when I used more dates and mixed by hand. You can see how you won't get bored with this recipe. Just make it different every time!