Coconut Oat Bars with Peanut Butter and Carob

It’s been a short while since I’ve made these but I’m hoping through the writing of this blog that I’ll be inspired to make them again. These delicious, grab-and-go bars make a healthy substitute to packaged bars.

Think: delicious peanut butter chocolatey bars.

When I make these, I use a large, 8×8 tubberware to store them in and simply cute square servings from the dish. Makes about 8-10/12 bars depending on how generous your portions are 🙂

To make the Bars:

1 cup of steel cut/rolled oats

½ cup shredded sweetened (or unsweetened) coconut

Dash of sea salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 tbsp melted coconut oil

⅓ cup peanut butter

The glue that holds them together: Date Paste

1 – 1 ½ cups pitted dates

¼ cup – ½ cup water (use as needed)

Dash of sea salt

Chocolate Topping

Surprise! You use Carob powder (you can also use sweet cocoa)

1-3 tbsp carob powder

1-2 tbsp melted coconut oil

• Mix all the bar ingredients together in a bowl – coat all the oats and press the mixture into the bottom of the 8×8 tubberware. Press until the oats are nice and flat in the bottom of the container and place in the fridge to harden for at least one hour (I had to keep mine in the fridge for longer and press hard – you’ll be thankful when you pick the bars out of the container and they don’t fall apart)

• For the glue that holds it all together: take all the ingredients and blend together until smooth – the water is added as needed to create a thick, smooth paste. This liquid needs to seep through all your oats pressed in the bottom of the container.

• The Chocolate Topping is created by mixing the carob powder and date paste together in a small mixing bowl. You’ll cover the oats with the ‘icing’. I put the bars back in the fridge to firm then simply slice bars from the container and eat them standing over the kitchen sink 🙂 If you’re lucky, you’ll have loose oats and carob icing rolling around in the container – take a fork and eat the crumbs, you’ll thank me later 🙂