It’s been a while since my sister, Josie, last wrote a guest post for me. After hearing about these snack bars for a few weeks in a row, I begged and begged asked if she’d mind sharing the recipe here with you!

Lucky for us, she accepted the challenge. Enjoy these easy to make, vegan, gluten free, tasty bars!!

Homemade Snack Bars

I always need a snack at work sometime between breakfast and lunch. Always. I usually carry a piece of fruit, but that doesn’t always fill me up. So a month or two ago, I decided to try making snack bars. Obviously I need it to be tasty, but I also need it to be a recipe that is easy enough for me to want to make it each week.

I looked at lots of recipes for homemade Larabars and Clif Bars and tested a few out. I’ve settled on the recipe below and I make them every week! It’s a very flexible recipe so you can adapt it to what you like. And as I’d hoped for, its SUPER easy. It only takes about 10 minutes from start to finish (including cleanup!) and another 5 or so minutes after they come out of the fridge!

Here are some tips:

• The pan is lined with parchment and I save the liner for at least 3 or 4 uses. If you don’t have parchment, I’m sure foil or wax paper would work just as well.
• You don’t have to use cherries, you can use apricots, or cranberries, or any other sticky/moist dried fruit – or a combo of multiple! But I would stick to using 1-1/4 cup dates since they are the perfect consistency to hold everything together.
• If you want to make a lot, double the recipe and use a 9×13 inch pan.
• I live near an awesome middle eastern grocery store where I can find all of these ingredients in bulk – if you can find something similar, it makes these super cheap, less than $1 per bar!

Now for the photos. Lots and lots of photos! (Don’t worry; the recipe follows at the end…)

Snack Bars Recipe

Yield: 9-12 bars

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

It's like Larabars meet Clif Bars!

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Ingredients

• 3/4 cup roasted, salted almonds
• 1/2 cup roasted, salted cashews
• 1/4 cup roasted pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
• 1 1/4 cup medjool dates
• 1 cup dried cherries
• coconut flakes

Instructions

Line a square baking pan with parchment and set aside.

Place the almonds, cashews, and pumpkin seeds in the food processor. Pulse until very finely chopped, but before they turn to nut butter. Set aside in a small bowl.

Place dates and other dried fruit in the food processor. Pulse until they form a paste (if they jam up in the processor, just spread them back out).

Pour the nuts into the processor with the dried fruit and pulse until it's thoroughly combined. When it's ready it will look uniformly mixed and crumbly.

Pour the mixture into the pan and press it down with your fingers until it's evenly spread out. Sprinkle the coconut on top and press it firmly with a rubber spatula. (Sometimes I substitute whole pumpkins seeds for the coconut on top.)

Refrigerate for about an hour to help the bars firm up. Once chilled, remove them from the pan and the parchment and slice into bars. Wrap in plastic wrap or parchment and they're ready for snacking!