Peanut Butter Trail Mix Bars

Modified somewhat heavily from Sally Baking Addiction's recipe.

These bars are packed with fun and flavor! They have a flavor profile with sweet and salty from the maple syrup and honey mixed with the peanut butter. Bursts of flavor also come from the raisins and chocolate chips. With a chewy texture, they also are easy to enjoy. Plus--they're pretty healthy overall with some healthy fats from the nuts and nut butter, oats, and fruit with the raisins.

"Those bars were so delicious. I need the recipe!" - One of my Co-workers

A salty and sweet treat that will keep you full and satisfied. I was craving a peanut butter treat and always have snacking nuts on hand! These were so easy and fun to make and no oven required! They include a lot of pieces of items that do contain fodmaps, but all in a low fodmap serving. I do not recommend more than 1 to 2 bars a day if following a low fodmap diet to avoid fodmap stacking.

Peanut Butter Trail Mix Bars

Time:

• Prep Time: 30 mins

• Chill time: 2 hours minimum, 1 day max

Yield: 18-24 bars depending on how small/large you want to cut them!

Materials:

• Food processor (or a blender, but a food processor is ideal).

• Microwave safe bowl or pan

• baking spatula

• square baking dish ( 8 in)

• Parchment paper

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup of pumpkin seeds divided 1/3 and 1/3 (unsalted)

• 1/3 cup of pecan halves (raw)

• 1/3 cup of raw or roasted unsalted almonds

• 1/3 cup slivered almonds (can use another 1/3 of regular just be sure to pulse more).

• 1 and 1/2 cup of old fashioned oats (divided into 1/2 and 1 cup)

• ¾ cup natural peanut butter (unstabilized, not no-stir) ( I used creamy, but you can use crunchy if you like!)

• ¼ cup of honey

• ¼ cup of maple syrup

• 2 tablespoons coconut oil

• 1 tablespoon of chia seeds

• 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips

• 1/3 raisins

Directions

1. Add 1/3 cup pumpkin seeds, almonds, pecans, and 1/2 cup oats to food processor. Pulse 10x (if using all whole almonds, may need 11-12 times). Pour into mixing bowl.

2. Add the rest of the pumpkins seeds, oats, chia seeds, chocolate chips, and raisins to this mixture. Mix together. Set aside.

3. Retrieve baking dish and line with parchment paper. Have some overhang in the sides if you can to make it easier to lift bars out and cut.

4. In a microwave safe bowl, add the peanut butter, honey, maple syrup, and coconut oil. Microwave for 30 seconds and carefully mix. Microwave for another 15 seconds. Stir. The mixture should be melty and smooth.

5. Pour peanut butter mixture over dry ingredient mixture and stir together. Make sure all ingredients are mixed in.

6. Transfer mixture to lined baking dish and pack down until you have it at your desired height. Mine filled about 3/4 or a little more of my baking dish. Pack against at least 3 sides of the dish to set up the mixture as bars. Ideally it will fit the whole baking dish ( I only had a nine inch pan). Once bars are packed to your desired height, place dish in the refrigerator to chill for at least two hours minimum but up to a day is great.

7. Remove dish from fridge and cut into bars of desired size.

8. Store in fridge for up to two weeks in airtight container. I would recommend storing them in the fridge, but if you want to store them out of the fridge, then store in airtight container for 5 or 6 days.

Notes

General Notes/differences from Sally:

•  Sally includes ground flax seeds. I did not have any, so I added some chia seeds. Definitely a different texture, but didn't change the recipe too much.

• Sally uses only honey, but I wanted to differentiate the sweetener a bit and so split the 1/2 cup honey into 1/4 cup honey and 1/4 cup maple syrup. She does mention however that maple syrup can be used instead.

• Sally's recipe also calls for dried cranberries. I didn't have any dried cranberries, and for my fodmap levels I also thought it better to omit. It was all good without them! But if you want to add them in, they were included at 1/3 cup.

• Sally recommends chilling for at least one hour, but I found that mine were still a bit soft at that point, and found that two hours seemed to be a better recommendation at least with my fridge, haha!

Low FODMAP Notes

• There is a low fodmap serving of raisins per bar. A safe low fodmap serving size is 1 tablespoon per meal. There are bout 5.6 tablespoons in the total mixture which definitely equates to a less than 1 tablespoon per bar ( or two!).

• Similarly the amount of each nut/seed and oats per bar is below the fodmap safe level (almonds, pecans, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds).

• Sally's original recipe calls for cashews rather than the mix of pumpkin seeds and pecans that I used. Cashews tend to trigger me a little more than almonds, pecans, or pumpkin seeds, so i opted for a switch. If you like cashews better, then certainly swap those in. So you would just use 2/3 cup of cashews in place of either the 2/3 cup of almonds or in place of the 1/3 cup of pecans and 1/3 of pumpkin seeds together.

• You can replace the peanut butter with another nut or seed butter if that helps you and your triggers, but the serving size for peanut butter is also below the low fodmap tested level for at least two bars.

• Similarly the honey, maple syrup, and coconut oil per bar or two are below the low fodmap safe level.

• I find natural peanut butter with all the additives is SO much easier on my stomach (no gums etc. to possible trigger anything more).

Try them yourself!

Let me know if you try to make these easy and (somewhat) healthy treats to satisfy your salty and sweet cravings! Comment below or send me a message on Instagram.