Carrie Fehr

Baked Oatmeal Almond Bars make a nice, healthy treat, especially for those who want something as a grab-and-go in the morning, or for an afternoon snack. They hit an excellent balance of crunchy, sweet, and chewy, with an awesome foundation of oats, almonds, and coconut. You can swap out any kind of nut, seed, dried fruit, or berry you wish. A handful of chocolate thrown into the mixture would not be such a bad idea either.

Baked Oatmeal Almond Bars

Oats, almonds, blueberries, and coconut  mixture going into the oven.

Ingredients:

2 cups oats

1 cup almonds, toasted and chopped

½ cup sunflower seeds, toasted

½ cup coconut, unsweetened

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup maple syrup

1 13.5 ounce can coconut milk, room temperature or gently warm it

1 large egg, room temperature

1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups berries

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F with a rack in the top third of the oven. Generously butter the inside of an 8-inch square baking dish or a half-sized sheet pan or muffin tin.

In a bowl, mix together the oats, nuts, seeds, coconut, baking powder, and salt.

In another bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, coconut milk, egg, butter, and vanilla.

Sprinkle berries over the prepared baking dish, sheet pan or muffin tin. Cover the fruit with the oat mixture. Pour the coconut milk mixture over the oats.

Bake 40 minutes, until the top is nicely golden and the oat mixture has set. Serve warm, or cool and then cut into squares.