You don’t need to dish out your hard-earned cash for energy bars designed in factories! This recipe features pecans and millet, an inexpensive, gluten-free grain that gives these bars great texture and nutritional firepower.
Ingredients
- 1 cup roughly chopped pecans
- 1/2 cup raw millet
- 1/4 cup raw shelled sunflower seeds
- 1 cup dried cherries
- 2 tbs. honey
- Zest of one medium orange
- 1/2 tsp. salt
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Spread pecans, millet, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds on a rimmed baking sheet. Place in oven and heat, stirring a couple of times, until golden and fragrant, 10 to 12 minutes.
- Remove from oven to cool.
- Reduce oven temperature to 200 degrees F.
- Blend cherries, honey, orange zest, salt, and 2 tablespoons water in a food processor until it becomes a paste. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the toasted pecan mixture.
- Line an 8-x-8-inch square baking pan with a piece of parchment paper large enough to allow 1 inch of overhang on all sides.
- Press pecan mixture firmly into prepared pan in an even layer, and bake until just slightly sticky to touch, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool completely in pan before using the parchment overhang to lift from pan. Cut into nine bars.
- Store chilled for two weeks or frozen for up to two months if wrapped tightly.
Recipe and photo courtesy of Rocket Fuel: Power-Packed Food for Sports and Adventure, by Matthew Kadey, RD, published by Velo Press, 2016.
Why No Numbers?
Readers sometimes ask us why we don’t publish nutrition information with our recipes. We believe that (barring specific medical advice to the contrary) if you’re eating primarily whole, healthy foods — an array of sustainably raised vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, legumes, meats, fish, eggs, whole-kernel grains, and healthy fats and oils — you probably don’t need to stress about the numbers. We prefer to focus on food quality and trust our bodies to tell us what we need. — The Editors
