I tried another new grain free snack yesterday – apple raisin bars. I got the recipe from Nourished and Nurtured (a great blog with lots of yummy-looking recipes!). These are so easy to make. I made them while I was making dinner 🙂  It is noisy to do all of the processing, but doesn’t take long at all. I used my crispy pecans instead of just soaked pecans. Still worked well. We haven’t actually eaten any bars yet, but I did taste a few chunks…very good!! They are a bit messy/soft even after a while in the fridge. So I stuck them in the freezer. We’ll have them for breakfast tomorrow and I’ll give a better verdict then. So far they seem like a very healthy, easy snack/breakfast. I patted the “dough” into a rectangle and cut it into 8 pieces (kind of like when I make scones).

The verdict…we all LOVE them! Rebecca has scarfed one down two days in a row for breakfast now. She’s requesting them. I guess I’ll have to make more dried apples so I can make more of these to have on hand. I love how healthy and easy they are. There isn’t even any added sugar. Awesome! We eat them straight out of the freezer (give them 1-2 minutes to soften).

Apple Raisin Bars

1 cup pecans (I used crispy pecans and skipped the soaking step below)
1 cup dried apples
1 cup raisins
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon, optional
unrefined coconut oil, for greasing your hands

Soak pecans in water with a pinch of sea salt for 12-24 hours. Rinse and drain well. Pulse nuts in a food processor until ground pretty well (but not too long or they’ll start turning into nut butter). Dump nuts into a bowl. Then place apples, raisins, salt, and optional spices in food processor and let it whir until well-combined and chopped. This will take longer than you think, but just let it keep going around and around. Then add back ground nuts and whir until well-combined. Dump it all onto a piece of wax paper. Then rub a bit of oil onto your hands to keep them from sticking to the mixture. Use your hands to do any last mixing necessary to get a consistent mixture, then form the mixture into a mound. Refrigerate for a couple hours, and then cut into pieces.

You can also vary the nuts and fruit to make other types. Lemon blueberry is delicious (made using almonds, dates, and dried blueberries with a little lemon zest).