Fruit, Honey And Coconut Energy Bars

Total Time: 15 mins Preparation Time: 15 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 12
• 1 cup peanut butter (or experiment with almond butter, too)
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup sunflower seeds
• 2/3 cup dried cherries or 2/3 cup dried cranberries or 2/3 cup raisins (or a combination)
• 3 tablespoons sesame seeds
• 1/3 cup shredded coconut
• 3 cups puffed brown rice cereal
• butter, to grease pan
• chocolate or carob chips (optional)
• sliced almonds (other nuts are a little too oily for this) (optional)

Recipe

• 1 grease an 8x8 pan with a little butter.
• 2 in a large bowl, mix together the peanut butter, honey and vanilla extract until well-combined.
• 3 add the sunflower seeds, dried fruit, sesame seeds and coconut and combine thoroughly with the peanut butter mixture.
• 4 gradually add the puffed brown rice cereal to this.
• 5 this is where a child comes in handy-- this step is gooey and messy and best mixed with your hands- and kids love stuff like that.
• 6 firmly press the mixture into the prepared 8x8 pan; you'll need to wet your hands slightly, otherwise the mixture just sticks to them.
• 7 cover and refrigerate for a couple of hours, then cut and serve.
• 8 they're very rich!