Rawsome Gluten-Free Chewy Granola Bars

Raw granola bars are an incredibly tasty, easy, and much healthier substitution to the synthetic, processed granola bars you find in supermarkets. They provide you with real, raw, wholesome energy, and help prevent disease instead of cause it. If you have ever picked up a package of granola bars at the grocery store and read the ingredients, you won't be surprised to find a myriad of weird words that might seem alien to the human language.

These granola bars are 100% raw, gluten-free, vegan, and taste about 100% better than the stuff you find in stores. They will also help you save money by making them in bulk and storing in the freezer for whenever you want an energy dense snack to help charge you through the day. You can make them with nuts, or completely nut-free. The granola bars imaged here contain walnuts, but for instance, instead of walnuts you can use raw amazonian peanuts or pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds (that have been slightly soaked and sprouted before hand). 

You can also make these with, or without a dehydrator. I always like to stick mine in the dehydrator for about 8 hours just to get rid of a little moisture before freezing. However, these will do perfectly fine straight from prep, and into the freezer to help solidify them!

Ingredients: (make sure all the dried fruit is sulphite-free!)
- 1 cup dried mulberries
- 1/2 cup dried, unsweetened (no-oil), raisins
- 1 cup pitted, medjool dates
- 1/2 cup dried, unsweetened cranberries
- 1 ripe, spotty banana
- 1 tsp. spirulina powder
- 1 cup pumpkin seeds, soaked, and sprouted until a little tail pokes through
- 1 cup sunflower seeds, soaked, and sprouted until a little tail pokes through
- 1/4 cup hemp seeds
- 1/4 cup unsweetened, preservative-free shredded coconut
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1 tsp. vanilla bean powder
- Pinch cayenne powder
- Optional: can add 1 cup soaked walnuts in replacement for the 1 cup of sunflower or pumpkin seeds
- Optional: can add 1 cup soaked and sprouted buckwheat to make for a more dry granola bar

Instructions:
1. Discard soak water from seeds (and/or nuts if you choose to use). Use a food processor to process the seeds, banana, mulberries and medjool dates. Scrape the sides, and re-spin, until fully incorporated. Transfer to a bowl.

2. Put into the bowl, the raisins, spirulina, hemp seeds, coconut, cinnamon, vanilla and cayenne if you so choose. You would also add the sprouted buckwheat to your mixture at this point, if you so choose to use buckwheat. Mix together well.

3. For crunchier, more conventional-tasting granola bars, dehydrate them! Spread out on a dehydrator sheet, and dehydrate at 140ºF for 8 hours. Flip, and dehydrate for another 8 hours. Alternatively, for a softer, more brownie-like granola bar, spread out on a parchment papered cookie sheet and freeze over night.

4. Cut the bars into whatever size you please and enjoy! You can store the dehydrated bars in the freezer forever, and same with the ones that are not dehydrated, if you do not have a dehydrator.