Morning Bars

I love mornings. I really do. I love the quiet, and cool temps. I love having a cup of coffee, getting ready for the day. I love sitting in my favorite corner, and just enjoying being awake, gearing up. And then it's time to get everyone up, ready, fed, and out the door, and ... it can be chaos. How these humans who have no ability to plan ahead and get things ready are my children, I just don't know. This means I have to do a bit of extra planning on my part to help us all achieve the goal of getting out the door on time.

Breakfast is an important meal in my book; I like to change things up and make things that taste good and also stick in the belly for a good while. I also do NOT want to be making these things in the morning; I am definitely not an enthusiastic bake-before-breakfast kind of person. So this bar recipe is perfect because not only does it fit the bill: tasty, high in fiber and protein, low in fat, bake ahead AND inexpensive ingredients. Check check check.

Feel free to swap out the dried fruit to use your favorite. I highly recommend sticking with tangier options like dried cherries or cranberries but use your favorite. We love walnuts, maybe you don't? Use your favorite. You can definitely use almond butter or sunflower butter if you'd rather. See? Flexible.

Morning Oat Bars

Yield: 20 - 24 bars

Ingredients

1 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup pure maple syrup

1 tsp salt

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1/2 cup flaked unsweetened coconut

2 T flax ground seeds

2 T almond flour

1/2 cup walnuts, toasted

1/2 cup dried cherries or craisins (can sub other tart dried fruit)

Flaky salt, optional

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 13 x 9 inch pan with foil; set aside.

In a large bowl stir together the peanut butter, butter, maple syrup and stir until smooth. Stir in the walnuts, salt, vanilla, oats, coconut, ground flax and almond flour; stir well.

Add walnuts and dried fruit. Stir well to combine.

Press the mixture into a 13 x 9 inch greased pan.

Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes or just until they are lightly browned around the edges.

Remove from oven and sprinkle lightly with flaky salt.

While still warm, score bars but let cool completely on wire rack before removing bars to a serving platter or storage container.

Store any leftover bar in the refrigerator or wrap them up in plastic and freeze.

Enjoy!