Chewy granola bars

A long time ago, I made some sort of granola bar thing that mimicked the Clif Nectar bars - specifically, the cranberry almond one. It was good, but I don't really remember that much from it. It had fresh apricots, dried cranberries, dates, almonds, and I think a little lemon juice. And I baked it.

I've also been making a bunch of apple leather, with the apple sauce that Ed has been making. I'll get to that in another post, at least its simple...

Anyway, I'm always searching for the ultimate homemade energy bar - something that is portable, high energy, healthy, and tastes good. Those clif bar knockoffs were pretty good, but I thought I'd look around and see what other people were doing - I noticed a lot of recipes out there trying to replicate larabars, also a date-based bar made of real food, and most of those didn't require any baking. This was intriguing, so I decided to try it. Of course, I ended up changing stuff, as always... It had started with just dates, cranberries, and almonds, but then it seemed to dry, so I added some applesauce, and then it seemed too wet, so I added some dry stuff, you see how it goes. The end result was good, though, I think I have a winner!

Chewy granola bars

1/3C dates
1/4C dried cranberries
1/4C almonds
1/2C oats
1 tbs applesauce
1 tbs flax seeds
1 tbs sunflower seeds

Heat your oven to 400F or so, and as that preheats, chop the almonds roughly in the food processor. Toast the almonds for 5 minutes, you could leave everything raw, but I like the flavor of toasted things. Once the almonds are toasted, toast the oats, flax seeds, and sunflower seeds. Meanwhile, grind the dates into a paste in the food processor, then add the craisins and try to get those ground a bit too. Add in the applesauce and grind some more.

Dump everything into a big bowl, and mix it around with your hands until its evenly mixed. Roll it into five evenly-sized balls. It'll be really sticky, so it might help to occasionally wash your hands. Once you have your little balls, roll them into logs and flatten them out. Then, wrap them in plastic, and you've got chewy granola bars ready to go!