Yay Friday!  While I like most Friday’s this one is even better because my husband, Adam, is finally coming home after a 4 week business trip.  Yeah, that’s a whole month.  It has been a long 4 weeks and I can’t wait to see him!  Plus I haven’t cooked for one person in a really long time and have a plethora of food stocked up for him to eat.  He might be more excited about that….

I have a snack recipe for you this week.  Snacking makes up a large portion of a lot of people’s diets and unfortunately those snacks aren’t the healthiest part of the day.  It’s so easy to grab chips from the vending machine or down 3 of those 100-calorie packaged snacks.  But there is good news!  You don’t have to relegate yourself to eating unhealthy snacks.  With just a little planning you can make your own healthy and delicious snacks.

When I was traveling a few weekends ago I picked up a Kit’s Organics Fruit + Seed Bar.  If I do buy snacks instead of making them (it happens every once in awhile) I like to make sure that there are no weird ingredients.  I got the cherry and pumpkin seed bar and it was delicious.  I decided to try and make my own version of this bar so I could enjoy it without having to pay almost two dollars per bar.  I like the tartness of the cherries and the subtle crunch of the pumpkin seeds.  These are quick to put together and will make enough to have for the whole week!

Cherry and Pumpkin Seed Bar

makes 5-6 bars depending how big you cut the bars

• 1 cup chopped and pitted dates
• 1/2 cup dried cherries (make sure there is no extra sugar added.  It should be just cherries)
• 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
• 2 tbsp almond meal (you can roughly chop up a few almonds to get the almond meal)
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• pinch of sea salt

 

1.  In a blender, blend the chopped dates until a ball forms.  Scrape down the sides and add in the cherries.  Blend again until the cherries are incorporated.

2.  Add in the rest of the ingredients and blend until everything is combined.

3.  In a small glass baking dish (8×8 or 9×9 works well) press the date/cherry mixture down with a spatula.  If it is really sticky you can wet the spatula.

4. Refrigerate for 30 minutes and then remove and cut into bars.

There you go!  This snack comes together really quickly which is great because now you have delicious snacks on hand when you get hungry!  You could also roll these into little balls and then roll them in a little cocoa powder for a chocolate cherry dessert!  Either way, enjoy your new healthy snacks!

Have a great Friday and Happy Valentines Day a little early!