Chewy Cherry Almond Granola Bars

I'm in the "we need to stop eating so much processed food" mode.  Between cereal, crackers, chips, bread, etc. is seems that we eat more processed junk than we do whole foods.  Brielle especially.  She lives for anything processed and getting her to eat otherwise is challenging.  She prefers a bowl of Reese's Puffs Cereal to a bowl of homemade soup.  

We've since replaced sugary cereal with some fresh fruit & yogurt smoothies -- bit hit.  Next, I thought I'd better home-make some snack foods rather than buying them.

I stumbled upon a Chewy Cherry & Almond Granola Bar from Iowa Girl Eats.  All I had to see was "cherry" & "almond" and I was instantly sold.  L.O.V.E. that flavor combination.  After calculating the nutritional info, here is what I found:

• 138 Calories - each slice is about the size of a regular granola bar, which can be 150 to 180 calories a piece.
• 9 grams of Fat - however, because the main ingredient is almonds, and you use coconut oil (which Dr. Oz raves about) in the binder, they are all good fats.
• 13 Carbs - not bad.
• 3.5 grams of Protein.

Perfect after school snack... mid morning snack... or lunch box addition. So, rather than continue to document my families poor eating habits, we'll move on to where you can find the recipe.

Chewy Cherry-Almond Granola Bars COURTESY OF IOWA GIRL EATS

For RECIPE, click HERE

I didn't have pecans on hand... just almonds, which worked just fine.  They are sweet (but not too sweet), chewy and a bit tart from the dried cherries.  Oh, and they literally took me 10 minutes to make.

Give them a try!  I hope you like them as much as we do!  Now I'd better sign off to go clean up the mess in my kitchen left behind from making them.