Chocolate Coconut Bars

The last day of the holidays called for a little rollerskating, a little painting, and a little baking.

My kids requested muesli bars but I’ve made them so often that I just don’t have the muesli bar love any more. I really needed to make something different.

So I turned to my trusty pinterest board where I had safely pinned this recipe for Coconut Health Bars from Cooking for Busy Mums.

I’d pinned it because I had an idea of how I could adapt it, and today was the day to try it out and make chocolate coconut bars!

The original recipe calls for sesame seeds but they are not the cheapest things to buy and we have a friend who is allergic so I planned to switch out the sesame seeds for something a little more budget and allergy friendly. I went with quick cook oats as they are super cheap, good for you, and I always have some in the pantry.

I also planned to add chocolate, because chocolate and coconut belong together, don’t you think?

My recipes adaptions don’t always go to plan, but these chocolate coconut bars turned out great!

They are quick and easy to make.
They are wheat-free, refined sugar free, and nut free.
And they taste delicious.

Plus it was a really nice change from making the same old muesli bar recipe over and over.

Chocolate Coconut Bars

Yield: 12 bars

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 3 minutes

Total Time: 13 minutes

These chocolate and coconut bars and sweetened with honey and full of oats and seeds, so they make a healthy-ish sweet snack option for kids.

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Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
• 1 cup quick cook oats
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 cup shredded coconut

Instructions

1. Line a slice tin (approx 28 x 18 cms) with baking paper.
2. Put the sunflower seeds and around a quarter of the oats into the food processor and whizz them up for a minute or two. You want the sunflower seeds to be cut into smallish pieces, but not turned into powder.
3. Combine the whizzed sunflower seeds and oats with the remaining oats and mix through the cocoa.
4. In a medium saucepan heat the honey over a medium heat until it boils.
5. Boil the honey for two minutes then add the seeds, oats and cocoa, mix well over a medium heat for another minute.
6. Take the mixture off the heat, add the coconut, and mix well.
7. Press the mixture very firmly into your lined tin (the more you press it down the better the bars will hold together).
8. Sprinkle the top with some extra coconut and press gently into the bars.
9. Refrigerate until hard - approximately an hour.
10. Cut into bars or squares and store in an airtight container in the fridge

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 128Total Fat: 0gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 0mgCarbohydrates: 0gFiber: 0gSugar: 0gProtein: 0g

These are definitely going onto our school snack list, but I’ll have to make a double batch as these disappeared well before I even thought about packing lunches for the first day back at school.

What’s your favourite quick and easy school snack?

Feel free to share a link to a recipe (yours or someone else’s) in the comments.