power bars.

And so, I have returned from a wonderful vacation to Kauai. My time there was spent lazying around in the sunshine, jumping into rivers, spending time with family, and most of all, eating and drinking fabulous foods and fruity cocktails. But for now, I won't be getting into that- be on the lookout for a Hawaii-themed post in the near future. Just know, I am back.

Before I left on our vacation, I was trying not to eat overly fatty (getting bloated before having to wear a bathing suit wasn't really something I wanted), so I decided to make something out of Heidi's health-conscious cookbook, Super Natural Cooking. Her recipes always sound absolutely delicious and very rarely ever use the general "bad" ingredients (white flour, refined sugars, etc.). I chose to go for her Power Bars recipe, since they seemed like the perfect healthy snack food- plus, it was something I could throw in our carry-on bag for the plane ride.

The end result was quite good. They were healthy-tasting, but in the good way- fruity, nutty, and not unnaturally sweet. I loved their chewy texture and how nicely they cut into small bars. Alice even wrapped them in little wax paper packages which made them even easier to grab on the go.





Do-It-Yourself Power Bars: from Super Natural Cooking

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 1/4 cups rolled oats
1 1/4 cups chopped toasted walnuts
1/2 cup oat bran
1 1/2 cups unsweetened brown rice cereal (crisp, not puffed)
1 cup dried cranberries, coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons finely chopped crystallized ginger
1 cup brown rice syrup
1/4 cup natural cane sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt

Directions:

Grease a pan with the coconut oil. If you like thick power bars, opt for an 8 by 8-inch pan; for thinner bars, use a 9 by 13-inch pan.

Mix the oats, walnuts, oat bran, cereal, cranberries, and ginger together in a large bowl and set aside. Combine the rice syrup, sugar, vanilla, and salt in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir constantly as it comes to a boil and thickens just a bit, about 4 minutes. Pour over the oat mixture and stir until the syrup is evenly incorporated.
Spread into the prepared pan and cool to room temperature before cutting into whatever size bars you desire.