Vegan Post Workout Cookie Bars

​I’m always on the look out for simple, quick and tasty ways to boost my nutrient intake and help me to feel strong and energized. This quest often has me just grabbing seeds and apples or a protein shake amped up with berries after a workout in the name of speediness, but then I decided to hunker down and figure something out that would taste great, could be made ahead of time, and most importantly didn’t require a lot of time.

This quest to figure something out that I could make a large batch of ahead of time lead me to some pretty horrible misfires but then it lead me to these incredibly delicious cookie flavored post workout treats.

As many of you know I am not a huge fan of baking so I feel that anything that doesn’t require me to turn on the oven is a big win in that department.

The base of these bars are old fashioned rolled oats, be sure not to use quick oats or minute oats because most of minerals and dietary fibers have been stripped out, so what’s the point right? Just an aside steal cut oats won’t work well either although they are loaded with nutrients they just stay super hard because we aren’t cooking them.

Now that we got that out of the way what will you need? All you need to make this recipe are the ingredients (listed below), a food processor, parchment paper (plastic wrap will also work in a pinch), and a 9x13 casserole dish.

Cookie Bars - Post Workout Fuel (18-20 bars)
1/3 cup dates
1/3 cup figs or dates again
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/8 tsp rock salt
2 cups old fashioned oats
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup pumpkin & sunflower seeds
1 tbsp cinnamon

Directions:
1. Line a casserole dish with parchment paper and set aside for once everything is done. 
2. Place dates, figs, salt and maple syrup into a food processor and process until it turns into a thick paste.  It might be a little liquidy but don't worry about that it will all workout in the end.  Scrape out the goop into a medium sized mixing bowl and set aside. 
3. Place half (1 cup) of the oats into the food processor, don't worry about cleaning out the food processor from the gooey date mixture the oats will take care of that mostly. Quickly blitz it 5-6 times, just enough so it is about half "floured" and half oat flakes.  This will help the whole mixture stick together a bit better, once done blitzing dump the oats into the mixing bowl with the date mixture. 
4. Add remaining oats, cinnamon, seeds and coconut to the mixing bowl and using two spatulas or spoons mix everything together, being sure to scrape up whatever is stuck to the bottom of the bowl.  Once mixed together dump into the parchment lined casserole dish and press down to about 1/4 inch thick.  To finish off the pressing wet your hands and help to even out the bars throughout. 
5. Place the bars into the fridge and allow them to firm up for at least 20 minutes.  Remove and cut into 18-20 bars.   Store them in an air tight container for up to 14 days if they last that long. 

*note: if you are stacking the bars in an airtight container be sure to separate with parchment paper so they don't stick together. ​