Another Granola Bar Recipe

We really enjoyed the last granola bar recipe I made, but it was very crumbly so I wanted a better one!

I decided to try something completely different, so got online to see what I could see. I found an interesting recipe on a food blog, choosing raw, and thought I would use that as a base for my own version. I like that site, it has some good looking recipes.

<- I am pleased with the way mine turned out, but think that next time I will not bake them - they tasted better raw.

G'sawy (Raw) Granola Bars
2 1/2 c rolled oats
1/2 c each raw pumpkin seeds, raw sunflower seeds
1/4 c sliced almonds
3 Tblsp coconut chunks (toasted)
1/2 c raisins

• 3 Tblsp each peanut & almond butter
• 10 dates
• 1 Tblsp chia seeds, 1/4 c almond milk

Soak the chia seeds in the almond milk for 3 minutes. Using blender or food processor, blend the bulleted ingredients together, then mix everything together by hand (or with mix-master).

Makes 18 bars,142cal, 7.3g fat, 3mg sodium, 16.8 carb, 2.6g fiber, 5.8g sugar, 4.4 protein

In the second photo, you can see my small cutting board, I used this to press the mixture firmly into a baking dish, they must be packed in tight so as not to all fall apart when you cut/eat them. It worked well packing them in this way - I shall do thus again. Mind you, when they fall all apart, you can eat the "crumbs", and we all know crumbs have no calories - right?! 

As I mentioned, I did bake this batch, at 350 for only about 8-10 minutes. It was fine, I would not bake for longer than that, and in fact I don't think I will bake them at all next time.
They tasted very good raw, and looking at the ingredients you see that there is nothing stopping you from eating them raw.
If you choose to keep them raw, you will want to keep them in the fridge... if you have room  O_O

Our fridge is far from large, so finding room amongst all those veggies is no easy task!
Whether you choose to bake this recipe or not, you have to place your dish in the fridge to cool off for quite awhile before you cut the bars.
I do recommend keeping them in the fridge even once they are cut... just because.

If you are wondering how tasty they are, well, this is all that was left by the time I got around to cutting them and putting them into a container later in the day!
I think next time I make these, I am going to add a few more raisins, or perhaps some chopped dates, just to make them a little sweeter. Owww, maybe craisins; mmmmm! Could make some date sugar and add that I suppose, but that seems like so much more work, and right now I am feeling awfully lazy.  >^_^<
Hope you enjoy them as much as we did; they are worth the bit of fuss needed to make them perfect.
YUM!