This recipe is inspired by the raw paleo bar recipe from Grok Grub here – I’ve made a few tweaks to give it a bit more flare and function!

Ingredients:

Bar

• 30 large dates, pitted
• ½ cup chia seeds
• 2 tbsp bee pollen
• 2 pinches salt
• 3 tbsp coconut oil
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 scoops protein powder of your choice (chocolate in my case!)
• 4 tbsp red palm oil

This is the first time I’m eating higher quantities of chia seeds or bee pollen so the verdict is still out. I love Red Palm oil and originally found it through Laird Hamilton who referred to it as a much more natural and fuller  version of MCT oil.

Fillings

• 3-4 tbsp of almond butter or natural peanut butter
• 3 tbsp coconut flakes

Instructions:

1. Throw all of the bar ingredients into a Blendtek or Vitamix. You’ll need something heavy duty enough to break all of the ingredients down as well as heat them up.
2. Throw the vitamix on high and use the muddle to continually push the ingredients down. You will notice over time after about 30 seconds the consistency will go from dry to oily and binding – this is the oils and fats in all of the various ingredients heating up and liquifying – great work!
3. Continue blending until you have a solid ‘mushy’ consistency throughout the mix and then shut the Vitamix off.
4. Use a spatula to scoop the ingredients out onto a tray laid with parchment paper. The bar consistency should be warm and pliable – wet your hands and then use them to spread the bar out into a nice even square, anywhere from half an inch to an inch thick.
5. Take your almond or peanut butter and begin spreading it on one half of the square. I love both peanut and almond butter so I was very generous with this filling portion of the bar.
6. Apply as much coconut shredding as you would like on top of this.
7. Finally, using the parchment paper, roll the other side of the square ontop of the buttered side, forming a sandwich. I used the parchment paper here and wrapped it completely around to hold the filling in.
8. Take your tray and throw it in the freezer for 30 minutes to let the bar and filling harden. I took the tray out and chopped the bar into smaller chunks which I then wrapped individually for small daily snacks. We threw all of these back in our freezer.

What I will try next time

1. Playing around with including bananas.
2. Including cinnamon and cayenne for some kick.
3. Adding Nutella to the filling (for those extra long days)

Let me know if you tried it and how you customized it for your needs!