Sunshine Bars

Instead of eating 3 larger meals per day, I tend to eat breakfast and dinner, but graze through lunch into the afternoon. I like to eat small portions of multiple foods instead of lunch. However, I don't usually buy snack food from the grocery store because it is difficult to find genuinely healthy products and it gets expensive quickly. There are plenty of brands that advertise for healthy snacks, but when you read the nutritional information, high amounts of salt, fat and additives are often included. As a way to rectify the situation, I began to make my own snack food. One of my favorite recipes comes from The New Laurel's Kitchen by Laurel Robertson, Carol Flanders and Brian Ruppenthal. I have adapted the recipe to suit my tastes, and you can vary it to suit yours.

Sunshine Bars:

1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup dried apricots
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup grapeseed oil
3/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup raisins, cut up
1/3 cup toasted almond meal

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Begin by chopping the raisins (I like to cut them in half, but you can do any size you like). Toast the almond meal in a skillet until it has a nice nutty smell. Meanwhile, heat orange juice to a boil in a small saucepan. Add dried apricots to the juice, bring to a boil again, cover and turn off heat. Let apricots sit until they absorb enough juice to become slightly tender.

While apricots are sitting, mix honey and oil together in a small bowl. In a larger bowl, stir together oats, wheat flour, wheat germ, cinnamon and salt. Add raisins and toasted almond meal to the dry ingredients.

When apricots are slightly tender, remove from pan and chop coarsely. Add the remaining orange juice to your honey and oil mix, and stir until combined. Add chopped apricots to dry ingredients and stir together. Combine wet and dry ingredients in the large bowl and stir until well mixed. Press the "dough" into an 8x8 square baking dish lined with parchment paper (or whatever size you have handy). Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely before cutting into squares.

I have added about twice as much cinnamon as the original recipe calls for because I find Laurel's recipes to be slightly under-seasoned for my taste (but I am a self-acknowledged cinnamon fiend...). Overall the recipe usually tastes great and it's fairly fool-proof.