Nut-Free Paleo Chewy Granola Bars

Ask and ye shall receive.  Well, if you’re my sister-in-law–who e-mailed me a couple of weeks ago with a plea for help.  She needed a granola bar recipe that was gluten-free, nut-free, and dairy-free to go to a nut-free school with her daughters and accommodate her daughters’ food sensitivities.  (Clearly, any recipe I come up with will be grain-free too.)  Oh, and her kids don’t like dates or raisins.  Did I have anything that would work?  Erm.

So, I set to work and came up with this recipe.  Given how quickly each iteration of this recipe was devoured, they’re obviously kid-approved.   Inspiration comes from many places for me (pleas for help being one of them). I’ve actually had many requests for more nut-free treats like these, either for those of you with nut allergies or for those of you with kids who go to nut-free school or classrooms.  So, it’s good to get the occasional motivation to create something new like this.  And, while I can’t develop brand new recipes for every special request, I guess if you’re related to me, you can go ahead and make elaborate recipe requests.  😉

If you want to change up the flavors here, you could use your favorite dried fruit or add some fun spices.  But, I do have to warn you that my husband used the P-word to describe these (Perfect).

I cut these into 16 squares.  If you want to cut into rectangles to be more granola-bar like, if would make about 10.

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 25 minutes

Serves: 10-16

Ingredients:

• 2 Eggs
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 1Tbsp Honey
• 1/2 cup finely Shredded Unsweetened Coconut
• 1/2 cup Pepitas (Shelled Pumpkin Seeds), chopped
• 1/3 cup Sunflower Seeds
• 3 Tbsp Sesame Seeds
• 1/3 cup Dried Apricots, chopped
• 1/3 cup Dried Cranberries, chopped
• 1/4 cup dairy-free mini chocolate chips (I used Enjoy Life brand)
• 1/2 cup Flaked Coconut (aka coconut chips) , chopped
• Pinch Salt
• Pinch Cinnamon