Apricot Oat Collagen Bars
Apricot Oat Collagen Bars
If you need something quick to grab in the mornings, these are it! These oat bars are not only tasty, but they are also loaded with healthy fats, protein, fibre and antioxidants. If you add them onto a meal they will help to keep you a little fuller for longer so that you won’t need to snack between meals. They are gluten-free, dairy-free and refined sugar-free. The bulk of them is made up of oats, pumpkin seeds, flaxseeds and collagen with a little coconut oil and honey to hold them together.
Collagen has been all the rage and for good reason! It helps to maintain skin elasticity, gut health and joint health and should be consumed daily. If I don’t have a coffee with collagen in the morning, I will try to incorporate one of these or something else that contains collagen during the day to make sure I get my daily dose. If I have a batch of these on hand, we will often have one for dessert. They do the trick for something sweet and nourish you at the same time. Try cutting them up into smaller squares and adding them to the kid’s lunches as a treat. They will love it!
Apricot Oat Collagen Bars
Apricot Oat Collagen Bars
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups pumpkin seeds
- 1 cup sprouted oats
- ½ cup ground flaxseed
- 1 cup dried apricots
- ½ cup collagen powder
- ¼ cup maple syrup, honey, or sugar-free syrup
- 2 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp vanilla
- ½ cup chocolate chips of choice
Instructions
- Line an 8x8” square pan with parchment paper and set it aside.
- In a food processor, pulse together your pumpkin seeds, oats and flaxseed until ground. Remove the mixture to a medium-sized bowl and set aside.
- Now, add the apricots to the food processor and pulse until they are broken down into tiny bits. Add to the bowl along with the collagen powder, cinnamon, and salt.
- In a small saucepan, heat coconut oil and syrup until melted and combined. Mix in the vanilla.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon until combined. The bar mixture will be very sticky and hard to mix. If you need to, you can add a tablespoon at a time of water to help bring things together.
- Spoon the bar mixture into your lined baking dish and put a piece of parchment paper on top. With your hands, press down on the parchment paper to flatten the mix into all the corners of the baking dish until flat. Remove the parchment paper.
- Heat your chocolate over a double broiler until melted. With a spoon, drizzle it over the bars.
- Put the bars in the fridge for 1-2 hours or the freezer for 15-30 minutes before cutting into squares.
- These are absolutely delicious! Enjoy!