Gran(d)ola bars

I just finished finals, so what do I do the first day of freedom? Obviously rekindle my relationship with Gertrude that has been a bit frayed these last few weeks.  Since the holiday season is inevitably filled with cookies, fudge and candy, I decided to hold off on the peppermint bark, gingerbread men or peanut butter balls.  Instead I made homemade oatmeal date granola bars  Before you walk these off as rabbit food or cardboard, realize that  I do actually value taste, so I may have sprinkled a generous amount of dark chocolate chips to the granola bars. But dark chocolate is healthy, right??

Whenever I am on pinterest, specifically the "health and fitness" area, I always see these pins for not-so-appealing sounding recipes that say have captions of "OMG these were so good, I am never buying XXX store- bought again!!". What I think- "really? really? you are never going to buy store bought ice cream ever again since you discovered mashed up frozen banana 'ice cream'......... I don't think so".   Anyways, that is what I think MOST of the time.  But these granola bars were literally so good that I may not buy store bought granola bars ever again (ok, that is a lie- I may not WANT to thought!).

• 1 cup packed dates, pitted
• 1/4 cup honey 
• 1/4 cup natural peanut butter 
• 1 cup slivered almonds
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate 
• 1/2 cup dried bing cherries 
• 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips

1) This was the one step that Gertrude was actually involved in....lightly toasting the oats.  I was a bit doubtful that Gertrude has the ability to "toast", let alone lightly "toast" anything.  But, I decided to give it a try using parchment paper.... which ended up working like a charm. No charred oats in these bars! I toasted the oats for about 300 degrees for 15 minutes. 

2) Next, it was time to puree the dates.  This was probably (ok, definitely) the first time in my entire life that have ever bought dates.,,, so lets just say I was a bit ignorant about the anatomy of a date.  I put the dates in the food processor.... and nothing happened to the dates.  A bit annoyed that my trusty food processor was not processing, I took the dates out and started to cut them..... andddd then I realized that dates have pits.  Genius moment of the day.... I am on winter break after all.  After pitting, the dates processed beautifully. 

3) Next, warm honey and peanut butter in small pan.  I couldn't really mess this up.  

4) Mix the oats, dates, honey/Pb mix, almonds, 1/2 cup chocolate and cherries in a large bowl.  You will probably need to use some force to mix everything together. 

5) Transfer mixture into 8 by 8 pan (with parchment paper on the bottom) and pat down hard

6) Melt remaining dark chocolate (add a little bit of butter if needed) and spread on top 

7) Put in fridge to set 

8) enjoy!

The best part of these are that they taste as good as a dessert, but I still consider it a healthy snack. This means it is socially acceptable to eat "dessert" for breakfast before my workout.... which is awesome.