Emily's Healthy Home

I’ve been wasting time on Pinterest again, so much time I was too tired to blog Saturday night because I was too busy pinning ideas for some room-makeovers for our house.  Ever since I discovered there are hardwood floors under my living room carpet I’ve been itching to rip it up and make our living room more warm and cozy, and less of a toy-pit.

I can’t be the only one with this problem now can I? This was funnier the first time I read it through, now it’s getting less funny as I keep re-reading it.

I really like this one, working out is just as much mental as it is physical.  Pretty sure I’m not the only one that has to constantly talk myself into finishing a workout or run! And I’m pretty sure that’s okay, just don’t give up on yourself. If you say you’re going to do something DO it.

NO Excuses!! Okay, okay moving on.  The other day a friend of mine came over and we chatted about healthy eating and some fitness tips for while at college.  Before she left she mentioned about getting a recommendation of a good granola/protein bar recipe.  She had said once she made a batch from a recipe that was really simple and only used 3 ingredients or so.  I promised I would try and search for one that she would like but then I ended up using that excuse to get busy creating my own recipe. However I did fail at the “3 ingredient” part, opps. They have more than 3 ingredients, but they are still easy! (By the way incase you were looking forward to a brownie recipe, I want to make a few tweaks first).

I’m really awful at coming up with good names for recipes, I think I’ve said that before.  These granola/protein bars are better than my cinnamon chip granola bars.  (Not that they are bad, but you get my drift.) They are filled with a few different nuts and two different seeds for added natural protein, as well as eggs.  All natural ingredients, no added refined sugars, AND a secret vegetable! (no not spinach! haha.)

Oh, I’m sorry chocolate chips landed in the mix as well, but we all need a little chocolate in our granola bars.  Totally leave them out if you want, they will be great either way!

Pea-nutty Protein Granola Bars

2 cups Quick Oats

1/3 Sunflower Seeds

1 cup Macadamia Nuts (crushed)

1/4 cup. Flax Seed (ground or whole)

1/4 cup Honey

1/4 cup Peanut Butter (*sub in powdered peanut butter for less fat)

1/4 cup almond butter (or you can use all peanut butter!)

1/3 cup Pumpkin Puree (secret veggie!)

1/3 cup NuNaturals Stevia Baking Blend (*optional for extra sweetness, you can use either brown sugar or other granulated sugar of your choice if you don’t have stevia)

1/3 cup Chocolate Chips (*optional!)

Directions:

Preheat you oven to 325 degrees. In a large mixing bowl combine the oats, sunflower seeds, macadamia nuts, and flax seed.  In smaller mixing bowl stir together the honey, peanut and almond butter, pumpkin and stevia.  Pour the wet peanut butter mixture into the bowl of oats and stir well.  Add in your chocolate if necessary! Line a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper and dump your granola bar dough in the middle and pat it out in a square (as much as you possibly can) with a thickness of about 1/2 inch.  I prefer to do it this way then spreading granola bar dough in a baking pan, they cook better and are much easier to cut once they are cooled without breaking them! Bake for 20-25 minutes and let cool before slicing.  I use a pizza cutter, perfect for cutting the bars!