All-Good Granola Bars

Granola bars are so easy to make and you get so many in a batch! They’re great to freeze and take out for an afternoon snack. Make these at the beginning of your week and you will have a go-to health snack all week long!

My All-Good Granola Bars got that name for good reason. They are filled with so many GOOD ingredients with some really GOOD benefits! Some of the goodness these granola bars have to offer includes:

Fibre

Fibre is so important for sweeping your colon clean and getting rid of any waste that may have accumulated in your body. It also helps stabilize blood sugar and lower cholesterol.

Antioxidants

Antioxidants help to neutralize the free radical activity that is happening in our bodies. Free radical activity is happening all the time and can be caused by stress, constipation, smoking, and consumption of harmful foods such as additives and rancid fats. The key is to balance out this free radical activity by taking in antioxidants. If our bodies become overwhelmed with free radicals, health issues start to set in.

Magnesium

Low magnesium levels have been associated with many health conditions, including diabetes, hypertension and headaches. Magnesium is also easily depleted if you have a gastrointestinal disease or if your diet is lacking in magnesium. Up your magnesium intake by including these All-Good Granola bars in your diet!

These granola bars are dairy-, gluten- and refined sugar-free. If you swap the honey out for maple syrup, ta-da - they become vegan, too!

Here is the recipe.

Yields: 12 bars

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 25 minutes

Ingredients

2 tablespoons flaxseed, grounded

4 tablespoons water

1 ½ cups Bob’s Old Fashioned Rolled Oats

¼ cup almonds, chopped

¼ cup cacao nibs

¼ cup pumpkin seeds

¼ cup unsweetened shredded coconut

¼ cup unsweetened dried cranberries

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ teaspoon sea salt

¼ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ cup honey

2 ½ tablespoons coconut oil, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons almond butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Line 9 x 13 glass baking dish with parchment paper.

3. Add ground flaxseed and water to a small bowl and set aside.

4. In a medium sized bowl, add oats, almonds, cacao nibs, pumpkin seeds, shredded coconut, cranberries, cinnamon, cloves, sea salt and ginger, and combine.

5. Add honey, coconut oil, vanilla and almond butter to flaxseed mixture, and combine.

6. Pour the wet mixture over the dry mixture and thoroughly combine.

7. Spread out the granola mixture in baking dish and press down with a spatula.

8. Bake for 25 minutes.

9. Remove from oven. Once cooled, cut into bars.

Sources:

Balch, Phyllis A. Prescription for dietary wellness. New York: Avery, 2003. Print.

Brown, Lisa, Bernard Rosner, and And Walter W Willett. "Lisa Brown." Cholesterol-lowering effects of dietary fiber: a meta-analysis. N.p., 01 Jan. 1999. Web. 14 Feb. 2017.

"Magnesium intake and risk of type 2 diabetes: a meta‐analysis." Larsson - 2007 - Journal of Internal Medicine - Wiley Online Library. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2017.

"Office of Dietary Supplements - Magnesium." National Institutes of Health. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2017.

"The Nutrition of Cocoa Nibs / Nutrition / Healthy Eating." / Nutrition / Healthy Eating. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2017.