Customized Soft Granola Bar -- vegan, simple, no-bake goodies

As an example of what you can do to customize the simple chewy granola bar to suit your preferences, we took the basic recipe, and added a few things: hemp hearts, raw cacao, and ground vanilla bean. Simple goodness that you can take with you easily.  I bet these would be good with raisins or chocolate chips. Or pieces of roast almond.

equipment needed:

mixing bowl
mixing spoon
measuring spoon
measuring cup
parchment
silicone baking pan or glass pan lined with parchment that overhangs enough to lift the whole thing out.



ingredients:

1/2 cup coconut nectar
1/2 cup sunflower  seed butter
1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 cup hemp hearts
1/2 cup shredded coconut
2 tbsp raw cacao
1/2 tsp ground vanilla bean


2 cups scotch oatmeal


directions:
1. heat the coconut nectar and sunflower butter and mix together
2. stir in the sea salt and shredded coconut
3. stir in the scotch oatmeal
4. press into a silicone baking pan
5. score into bar shapes
6. chill
7. makes chewy granola bars



substitutions:

• instead of sunflower seed butter, try almond butter or peanut butter
• instead of coconut nectar, try maple syrup. What's your favourite liquid sweetener?

optional possible add-ins to customize these bars:

• 2 tbsp raw cacao
• 1/2 cup hemp hearts
• chocolate chips
• raisins
• dried cranberries
• chopped nuts
• pumpkin seeds
• sunflower seeds

What would you add?