If you’ve got kids home for the Summer, you’ll want to keep these Paleo Chewy Trail Mix Bars on hand for a great snack option!
We are a road trip family, plain and simple. Every year we try to take at least one trip either to the beach, to visit family, or to the mountains. Some of these trips, depending on where we are stationed as a military family, can mean 2 long days in the car and 3 starving children naturally.
I have an irrational fear of just how supposedly underfed they become and so I prepare at great lengths to outsmart the famine that lies ahead. I’m not joking when I say I am willing to sacrifice all leg room in our full sized SUV to make darn certain the snack bag is fully stocked.
I typically load up on jerky, trail mix, bars of several varieties, meat sticks, potato chips, fruit, and the list goes on. It never fails, there is no crumb left behind, even when they turn their noses up at the dregs of the bag.
I’ve made my old favorite, Lala Truffles [3] many years and decided to try my hand at a chewy trail mix type bar we could take down on our beach trip this Summer. This recipe took me 3 rounds to figure out but I finally nailed it! I had trouble with the bars falling apart into granola (not that I’m complaining) but I really wanted a bar that would stay together.
Third time is a charm as they say as I raced out the door with a bowl filled of the “flops” for each of my kids to snack on for their afternoon commute to extracurricular activities or as I like to call it, my own personal hell. (kidding, sorta)
These do have egg in them and I recommend keeping the egg. I tried making them egg free the other two times and when I did, even with the chia and gelatin, they still crumbled. If you’d like to experiment, all the better, just bear in mind you may end up with really tasty granola instead of bars.
In any event, they are delicious and the perfect road trip food so stock up and just say no to hungry children!
Paleo Chewy Trail Mix Bars
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup sun butter unsweetened
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1/4 cup ghee or coconut oil (melted)
- 1/4 cup chia seeds
- 1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
- 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds/pepitas
- 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
- 1/2 cup dairy free chocolate chips, free trade when able
- 1/8 teaspoon or more ground cinnamon
- 3–4 tablespoons grass fed gelatin (not collagen)
- 1 egg
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350
- Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir to combine
- Line a baking pan/casserole dish with a piece of parchment paper
- Spoon the mixture into the baking dish (mine was 9×7)
- Bake for 30 minutes then remove carefully
- Allow the bars to cool and then carefully lift the parchment paper (and bars) out of the pan and slice into bars with a knife
Find it online: https://predominantlypaleo.com/paleo-chewy-trail-mix-bars/ [4]
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