It’s officially V A C A T I O N time for my hubs and moi!
We are heading on a two-week road trip through beautiful British Columbia then down into Washington to the Gorge for an Arcade Fire concert then over to Seattle!
I’m excited and so very ready for a summer holiday!
My lovely receptionist Patty, gives me recipes from time to time… like the Tagine (remember that one? So yummy!)… and this recipe is another she passed along to me with some added NITK tweaks!
The original recipe was for cookies, but I ended up making bars, and cut down the sugar content by half. I also decided to add in dried apricots … a snack I can’t seem to get enough of these days! I tried out the cookies raw before they were baked in the oven, and I loved the raw version just as much as the baked!
Sesame, pumpkin, sunflower, and poppy seeds make up the bulk of the bars and it’s all held together with natural creamy peanut butter and raw honey (or pure maple syrup for vegan). The dried apricots add in a little more texture, and I used coconut palm sugar to up the sweetness a touch!
Whenever we are road-trippin’ it for a vacation, I always love to have good road snacks on hand (see my travel nutrition survival guide), and these seed bars fit the bill! Easy to pack and take on-the-go to satisfy the sweet AND salty tooth! I have to admit, I love both sweet and salty, I don’t think I could ever choose between the two!
As for nutrition, these bars provide a great combo of healthy fats, protein, and carbohydrates! They are higher calorie so would also work great for a pre-run, hike, or biking snack!
We are on the road officially today! A quick night in Calgary and we will be on our way to the beach in BC tomorrow! Can’t wait!
What are your favourite healthy road-trip snacks?
Have a fantastic weekend!
- 1 cup natural peanut butter (I used salted)
- ¼ cup coconut palm sugar
- ¼ cup raw honey (or pure maple syrup for vegan)
- ½ cup instant or rolled oats
- ½ cup raw sunflower seeds
- ½ cup raw sesame seeds
- ½ cup raw pumpkin seeds
- ¼ cup poppy seeds
- ½ cup dried apricots, chopped
- Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.
- Roll into a log with wax paper (for cookie shape) or press into a 9x9 pan lined with wax paper (for bars).
- Refrigerate.
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
- Remove dough and slice into cookies or bars (20) while still cold.
- Bake for 6-8 minutes.
Christal
Nutritionist in the Kitch
Oh. P.S. … if you haven’t already noticed – the blog is looking a little different these days. I’ve decided I needed to clean things up a bit and put the focus back on the food! My other blog design was lovely but very busy, and I’m trying to turn away from the excessive side-bar busyness and get back to the basics. The blog will be undergoing another re-design over the next couple weeks and I’m SUPER excited about the final look – simple, clean, and classy! Stay tuned! 🙂
Hi,
I just made this and it tastes good , however when i removed from the oven the top part is still soft. Is it suppose to get hard like a bar or just soft? please let me know.
It’s supposed to harden up enough to be a bar texture, but it hardens as it cools! 🙂
Hi,
I am loving your recipes. They are simple and creative and shows the way to enjoy healthy food without feeling deprived.
I have started to experiment with raw nut/health bars, ice creams based on coconut milk, frozen fruits etc. I often try out from the combination of stuff i find in my fridge. I wanted to know how you calculate the calories in the food you make in your kitchen and the breakdown of carbohydrates, fat, sugar etc.
Keep posting.
Cheers
Hi! SO glad you like the recipes! I use the calorie calculator on My Fitness Pal! 🙂
I love your recipes and I also love sweet and salty.I am a little lost here, how are these bars salty.? None of the nuts in the recipe are salted? There is no added salt? so how does the “salty” fit in?
Thanks,
Tootz
Hi Tootz!! I find sunflower seeds to be naturally salty tasting, and I also use a natural peanut butter with salt in it, so that’s where I got the salty in the flavour of these bars! You could use salted seeds if you want to as well but that might make it a little too salty! If you use the salted peanut butter I promise you’ll see what I mean by sweet and salty when you taste them! 🙂
Yay! Holiday! I gotta wait another few weeks before it’s my turn and I fly back to visit my home country Norway, much needed 😀
I hope you have a fantastic time and enjoy the concert 🙂 There bars looks great, and I love how you used ingredients that are all fairly easy to obtain 😀 Yummey! x
These bars look absolutely scrumptious! You have sesame seeds listed twice in the ingredient list, but I assume you meant sunflower. I will try this recipe out as soon as I pick up some dried apricots. Thanks for posting this!
As a side note, have a wonderful holiday, and, if you are passing through the Canada/US border in the next couple of days, Blaine Washington (right at the border) has two giant amazing “Pirates of the Caribbean” style ships in her harbour this weekend. Just look out your window to the right as you are in the border lineup and you should see them. Happy trails! 🙂
Hi Lisa! whoops, thanks for pointing that out, yep that’s what I meant! I’m not sure if that’s the route we are passing through or not, but if we are I will definitely take a look! 🙂