Mom's Homemade Nut Bars

Over the last 6 months, "nuts" and I have moved from casual acquaintances to intimate friends. Or perhaps it might be more accurate to say we've moved from casual acquaintances to THEY ARE NOW A TOTAL AND COMPLETE LIFESAVER!

Try figuring out what to eat for breakfast without using wheat, dairy, eggs, grains, soy or peanuts?

See? Its hard. In the face of that dilemma, nuts came galloping in to my rescue and I in their debt.

My mom makes the following protein nut bars on a regular basis. I have started making them weekly as well. I crumble them up in a bowl, top them with a little coconut milk and fruit and then have myself a tasty and filling breakfast. These also work beautifully for camping food or a hiking snack. And when I am desperate for a dessert, I can almost pretend that they are a cookie!

Below is my mom's recipe. I had to change a few things and I put those in parenthesis. This is an awesome recipe for improvisation. So have fun!

Mom's Homemade Nut Bars


1 ½ cups ground almonds (Or almond meal)
1 ½ cups ground walnuts
¼ cup sunflower seeds
½ cup pecans
½ cup hazelnut pieces (Or cashews or any other nut that strikes your fancy...)
¼ cup mini chocolate chips (I don't use chocolate chips. But some dried fruit would be lovely)
2 scoops Metagenics protein powder (Or any other favorite protein powder. You can also just omit this part)
1 cup Rice Krispies
1/4 cup flax seeds
1/4 cup chia seeds
2 tsp cinnamon
½ cup chunky peanut butter (I use Sunflower Seed Butter, but almond butter or cashew butter would also work well)
½ cup agave nectar

Preheat oven to 275 degrees.
Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. The mixture will be somewhat sticky. Press into 9x11 baking dish that has been sprayed with Pam. Bake for 30 minutes to one hour depending on how toasty you prefer it. Cool; cut into 24 bars. Store in refrigerator or freezer.


I will say the up front cost of these ingredients will seem like a lot. But my mom worked it out and it actually comes to about $0.59 per bar. I loaded up on all this stuff a bit ago and will probably get 4 batches of bars out of it.

Hope you enjoy!