I always have a ton of recipes in my backlog of things to cook, and granola bars have been on them for a few weeks.  I made a similar one with quinoa here, but wanted to try something new. I mashed up a few recipes I saw, including this baked one and this chewy one, but made them my own because I wanted to use the tahini and hemp seeds I had on hand! The whole no bake thing also sounded good, and fast, so I went that route. And because I didn't have chocolate chips (sad, unheard of), I went with a DRIZZLE!

No bake granola bars or balls are pretty straightforward to make. You start with your dry ingredients -

Then mix away.

Melt your wet ingredients (tahini or nut butter, maple or honey, vanilla) like so (that swirl!)

Mix this in with the dry ingredients until well combined. It will look a bit crumbly like the picture below, but once you press the mixture into a pan tightly, it will come together.

Once you've pressed the oat mixture, you can TOP IT!! You'll see that I drizzled chocolate on top - totally recommend! Chocolate chips inside would be even better 🙂 The drizzle was a good compromise with my husband, who doesn't like chocolate quiiiiite as much as me. Just mix it all up - press into pan - drizzle - fridge it - then...

Cut into bars!

And then enjoy all week 🙂

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No Bake Tahini Hemp Granola Bars

A 10 minute no bake recipe for granola bars made with oats, nuts, tahini and seeds. A not-too-sweet snack or breakfast far. Vegan and gluten free.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Total Time 10 minutes

Servings 12 -16 small bars

Author Andrea Shome

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

• 1 and ½ cups rolled oats
• ¼ cup hemp seeds
• ¼ cup finely shredded coconut
• ¼ cup mini chocolate chips
• 3 Tablespoons nuts I used sliced almonds
• 2 Tablespoons chia seeds
• 2 Tablespoons ground flax seeds
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon salt

Wet Ingredients

• ½ cup tahini
• ¼ cup maple syrup ⅓ cup for sweeter bars
• 1 teaspoon coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

• Line a 9-inch square pan with parchment paper. In a large bowl combine the dry ingredients (oats, hemp seeds, coconut, nuts, chia seeds, flax seeds, cinnamon, salt and chocolate chips if using).
• Heat a small saucepan over medium low heat and add in wet ingredients (maple syrup, tahini, coconut oil, and vanilla). Stir until everything is melted and combine.
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry mixture and stir, stir, stir until coated. It may not seem like enough at first but will come together nicely.
• Transfer the granola mix to the pan and spread evenly until the pan is filled. Press down firmly to pack in the bars - this will make sure that they stick together. I used the top of a lid to pat them down firmly. Once they are flat, you can drizzle them with melted chocolate*.
• Place the pan in the fridge for 1-2 hours to firm up. Once firm, cut into even squares or thin bars. These should keep nicely in the fridge for a week or so - I like to wrap them individually and bring as snacks!

Notes

* You can melt chocolate using the double boiler method, or in 15-20 second spurts in the microwave, stirring in between sessions.

You could leave out any of the seeds if you don't have them on hand - the oats, maple, and tahini are the main ingredients! You can add other chopped nuts if you like in place of them.

If you try these out, or any other variations, let me know how they turn out! Bon appetit.

The post No Bake Tahini Hemp Granola Bars appeared first on French Pressed Kitchen.

A little weird, right? I found it at TJs in powder form - packaging looks much better! (If you don't have a Trader Joe's near you I think this brand on Amazon looks good - start small to see if you like it!)

You can read more about the benefits of maca here and here but I highlighted my favorite takeaways below.

+ Improve your mood! Yay!

+ Help balance hormones

+ Boost energy? I always need that

+ Increased libido (ha! okay we'll see)

+ Lots of nutritional benefits, including 20 amino acids, lots of vitamins + minerals, including iron.

+ Is an adaptogen (Just learned about these. Google says they are considered "natural substances that help the body to adapt to stress and exert a normalizing effect upon bodily processes.")

{Side note on adaptogens - I've been seeing a lot of people trying REBBL drinks recently that have these. I haven't tried them but seems good! You can read more about specific adaptogens and ways to take them here. I was looking at Be Well for supplements which Iooks interesting, and I also know that one of my favorite brands, Purely Elizabeth, is coming out with some granola bars that will have them!! I did an early on taste test when they were sampling and they were pretty good :)}

I wanted to try maca because of all these reasons, and finally found it for a fairly affordable price at TJ's! Woot. I was worried about the taste / texture, but have liked it so far in my oats. It seems to add a nutty almost chocolate-y flavor once cooked. I'm not sure I love the smell of it...but I just ignored that because it tasted pretty good. I think this has to do with using raw powder, as well. The flavor seems to mellow once cooked so I suspect it would be good in brownies or other chocolate-y baked goods. I haven't tried the gelantinized version but that may also have a softer flavor.

Here are two oatmeal combinations that I've used so far. First up, almond milk // maca // collagen cooked together, topped with freeze-dried raspberries, hemp seeds, chia seeds and our hand picked (then frozen) blueberries and blackberries.

Next up was almond milk // maca // collagen // cinamon cooked together, topped with frozen blueberries // goji berries // walnuts // almond drizzle

If you've had any experience with adaptogens recently, or found any other delicious maca recipes, I'm be interested to hear more!!

The post Maca, Adaptogens + Oatmeal appeared first on French Pressed Kitchen.

I made a few tweaks, including not using chocolate (what?) just to mix things up a bit. Mixing the dry ingredients:

I deviated slightly from the recipe and did ⅓ cup raisins + a package of dried fruits from Starbucks because it was laying around. Pantry clean out, people. They give ALL the toppings at Starbucks when I go so I usually end up saving all the random things and adding them to things like this or granola. Anyway, the most important thing to note about these cookies is that they have zucchini so you can get yo GREENS! Lots of other hearty ingredients including almond flour, oats, nuts and spices. You can easily make them vegan by swapping out a flax egg (1 Tablespoon ground flaxseed + 3 Tablespoons water) for the regular egg.

BOOM cookie plate

Hi def closeup so you can see just how many oats there are:

Gotta eat 'em all.

I enjoyed these with a glass of vanilla almond milk that I frothed with Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides for a little extra protein + beauty boost. So delicious. They would of course be great with coffee as well. Make these ahead of time for a quick weekday breakfast on the go or for a freezer snack!

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Zucchini Oat Breakfast Cookies

These hearty cookies make a great snack or breakfast on the go. Switch it up with different dried fruits, nuts and/or chocolate!

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Keyword Cookies, Oats, Zucchini

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Author Andrea | French Pressed Kitchen

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients:

• ¾ cup almond flour
• 2 Tablespoons coconut flour
• 2 Tablespoons flax seed
• 2 Tablespoons chia seeds
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg

Wet Ingredients:

• ¼ cup applesauce I used chunky homemade
• 1 cup shredded zucchini
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 Tablespoons coconut sugar optional

Add Ins:

• 2 cups rolled oats
• ⅓ cup raisins or other dried fruit
• ⅓ cup nuts

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Mix all dry ingredients together in a medium bowl and set aside. Mix the wet ingredients (applesauce, zucchini, egg, vanilla, sugar) in a small bowl or large measuring cup.
• Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, then mix well to combine. Stir in the oats, raisins and nuts.
• Drop by large spoonfuls (I used a cookie scoop, about 2 Tablespoons) onto a cookie sheet or parchment lined pan. I had to make two pans!
• Bake 10-12 minutes. Cool for a few minutes on the pan, then gently transfer to a cooling rack to finish cooling.

Notes

Mine baked for 12 minutes and were still a bit moist so I stored them in the fridge.

Bon app!

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