Hi there! I hope you are enjoying your weekend.
Many of you have been asking me how you can subscribe via email and I finally figured it out (Feedburner)!
It only took me 2 years, but better late than never right?
You can click each widget and it will bring you to that page. Pretty snazzy, I know.
I am also working hard on my new Frequently Asked Questions page, found at the top of my website called ‘FAQ’. You can check it out here. I am not finished yet, but like to think of it as a work in progress!
And finally, I have a delicious breakfast bar recipe to share with you. I made these last week and they they make a perfect snack bar when you are running out the door and need a boost, but not a sugar crash.
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Tropical Lemon Cranberry Coconut Chia Bars
Packed with chia seeds, dried cranberries, pistachios, and lemon, these bars are chewy, light, and tropical. I like to think of them as a tropical macaroon bar. They also make a perfect breakfast when you are running out the door!
Inspired by Navitas Naturals.
Ingredients:
- 3 tablespoons chia seeds
- 6 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (approx 1.5 lemons)
- 1.5 cups regular oats, ground into a flour in food processor
- 1/2 cup regular oats (not ground)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1.5 cups unsweetened shredded coconut + additional for sprinkling
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest
- 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/3 cup Agave nectar
- 4 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
- 1/4 cup pistachios
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line an 8 inch square pan with parchment paper.
2. In a small bowl, mix together the chia seeds and lemon juice. Set aside to gel up while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. Take your 1.5 cup of oats and process them in food processor until a flour forms.
3. In a medium bowl, mix together the oat flour (regular oats processed into a flour), baking powder, 1/2 cup regular oats, kosher salt, lemon zest, dried cranberries, pistachios, and shredded coconut.
4. In another small bowl, whisk together the melted coconut oil, applesauce, and agave nectar. Mix in the gelled up chia seed mixture until combined.
5. Add wet to dry and stir well until blended. It will take a while to mix it thoroughly. Scoop the mixture into the prepared pan and spread out smoothly with a spatula. Sprinkle additional coconut on top before baking.
6. Bake for about 20 minutes at 350F until golden around the outer edge. It will very lightly spring up when pressed.
7. Cool in pan for about 10 minutes before transferring onto a cooling rack for about 30 minutes. Cut into 16 squares. Approx 200 calories per square.
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The first thing you do is mix one big chia egg with fresh lemon juice!
I love this recipe because there are 3 full tablespoons of chia seeds. You could also sprinkle more chia seeds on top before baking if you wanted too.
Mix together the dry ingredients.
And the wet ingredients in another bowl:
Add wet to dry and mix well.
Bake for about 20 minutes at 350F, cool, and slice!
The flavour is outstanding. I am not much of a ‘lemon flavour’ person, but I just love the flavour of these bars. They are like a tropical macaroon bar with a wonderful chewy texture and pistachio crunch!
I rarely bake with Agave nectar, but I used it in this recipe because I find that the flavour of Agave goes well with lemon. I’m sure you could substitute the agave for another liquid sweetener if you wanted though.
Something tells me I could use these for my 7 miler long-run fuel today…I better get cracking!
just made this. great recipe!
Trying to figure out how to soak the oatmeal ahead of time but it seems complicated!!
Just made those and they were amazing!! thank you
I made these the other day and they are zoo delicious! I substituted whole wheat flour for the oat flour and pumpkin seeds for the pistachios and they still turned out perfect!
I’ve shared them on my blog, along with some photos.
http://onesmallvegan.com/2013/03/21/lemon-cranberry-coconut-chia-bars/
Love these! I made them this past week, and they were amazing! Needless to say, my family devoured them. I added dried pineapple, the sugary, sulfured, not-so-good-for-you kind, and it definitely upped the tropical level. Next time I might try fresh pineapple chunks. They’re like lemon bars that just got back from Hawaii. I also used cashews instead of pistachios, because that’s what I had (I’m thinking macadamias would be killer); and I used 1 cup of whole wheat flour rather than the processed oats, because I’m lazy.
Love the good stuff. Keep it comin’!
I made these! The texture was really good though I found it way too tart and I am a lemon person! Maybe my lemons were just too acidic? Next time I would cut the lemon in half
This is the third time I am making these and they are so good I can’t help myself from licking the bowl clean! Thank you for another amazingly healthy and delicious recipe!
I made these bars this weekend and had them for breakfast this morning. They have a wonderful light summery flavor. Each component of the bars (pistachios, cranberries, coconut, lemon) stood out on its own and yet the flavors melded together perfectly.
I baked mine in a rectangular glass pan that’s a bit narrower than an 8×8 pan. But I feel that even if I did use an 8×8, cutting the bars into 16 would be too small for a filling breakfast. I would probably cut into 9 squares. I ate 1/6 of my pan this morning along with a half banana and that was enough for me. 16 small squares would work great for a party snack or light dessert.
These sound awesome! Is there any reason to use agave nectar other than for sweetner? Just trying to find recipes with low-glucose/sugars and agave nectar is high on that scale.
Thanks for sharing!
Would there be a way to do this whilst excluding any coconut products? Unfortunately coconut is one of my several food intolerances :(
I made these for my yoga meetup group and everyone loved them! Some of the girls even asked to keep the few that didn’t get eaten. We had a few squares leftover and they lasted great in the fridge for nearly a week. Super simple recipe and very tasty. I added some chopped, no sugar added dried pineapple.
I’ll be making these again.
These were DELICIOUS! Used more applesauce instead of coconut oil, less coconut and added some goji berries and walnuts instead of pistachios but the lemon flavor was amazing! Absolutely loved these.
Looks amazing! Thanks for sharing! Wondering if omitting half the coconut would make a difference in consistency? If so, what would you sub in?
Hi there, I think you’ve guessed right that omitting an amount of coconut that significant runs the risk of throwing off the bars’ consistency. To keep the right balance of wet and dry ingredients, you could try subbing in more whole oats in place of the missing coconut. Please let us know how it goes if you decide to experiment!
Did the work for ya, might as well share.
Tropical Lemon Bars
Ingredients: oat flour, oats, chia seeds, baking powder, sea salt,
unsweetened coconut, pistachios, sweetened dried cranberries, honey, unsweetened
applesauce, maple syrup, lemon zest, lemon juice.
In 1 bar: 170 calories
1.5g fiber (10% daily value)
18g carbohydrates
Added sugar 4g (1 teaspoon)
2.5g protein
This was a hit with my family and my husband’s. My family is from Eastern Europe and my husband is from a village in India, so it’s safe to say that these are universally appealing. :-) Also, I I counted the sugar and calories and it’s less than a half a teaspoon sugar from honey and apple sauce per piece