Dark Chocolate Almond Energy Bars

I have been one busy bee. My daily schedule has been school, internship, work, bake, repeat. I have been eating out a lot more than usual, because it's just convenient, and when you're somewhere(s) 15 hours of the day, it's kind of hard to pack two lunches.
Alas, t's all a great character building, life-changing learning experience I've been devoted too for the last two years......
(Insert maniacal chuckle and crazy-eyed twitch look here)
 Let's just say I'm glad I was in good shape before I started this OT  internship, because I am basically sweating through my scrubs at the end of each day, and developing muscles I truly didn't know existed before.


 So the long and short of it is that I need to make healthy snacks to keep on me at all times that are both inexpensive and healthy. Making your own snacks is almost always far cheaper than buying them.  And oh,what fun it is to have someone ogle your granola bar with wide eyes, and you can say "I made this delicious treat myself!", right?

Dark Chocolate Almond Energy Bars

 -3 cups no-cook oats

-1/2 cup dried cranberries or cherries (Or both!)

-1/2 cup chopped almonds

-1  cup dark chocolate chips

-2 T. cocoa powder

-2 T. ground flax seeds

- 1 cup brown rice syrup ( can be found in the bakery section)

-1 1/2  cup almond butter

-1 T vanilla

Directions: Spray a 9x13 cake pan with non-stick spray. In a saute pan, combine almond butter, brown rice syrup, cocoa powder and 1/2 cup chocolate chips and melt until combined. Stir in vanilla. Combine Oats, fruit, almonds, and flax seeds in a medium bowl and toss to combine. Stir wet mixture in, folding to combine, adding remaining 1/2 cup  of chocolate chips after mixture is slightly cooled. Press into pan and place in fridge about one hour. Cut bars into sizes you want and store at room temp up to 2 weeks.

* this can be made gluten-free by using brown rice cereal instead of the oats

 Nothing quite says "Up yours Nature's Valley" like a homemade granola bar. 

You can use real, organic ingredients and skip over the over-priced, low nutrition granola bars.

I cut them into slivers  of about a regular serving size and wrap them individually in plastic wrap so I can grab them on the go.  

A happy energy bar, soaking up the rays.

 Making your own treats will be better for your pocket-book and your health. It does take some time, but really, only like 5-10 minutes. You can make a whole batch of these, ( about 16 bars) for what I figured to be about 6$. The average box of granola bars is about 6-8$ for 6 bars.I figure after purchasing all the ingredients for 15$ (Brown rice syrup and almond butter are kinda spendy) I can make close to 50 bars for that much. Sounds good to me!