Vegan Chocolate Cherry Granola Bars

These Vegan Chocolate Cherry Granola Bars are filled with cacao, oats, chia seeds, and fresh cherries and are a nutritious lunchtime snack! 

Hi friends! How’s everyone’s weekend so far? Did anyone else binge watch Orange Is The New Black the past two days? If so, don’t tell me what happened. I made my way through the first few episodes last night but probably won’t finish up the season until the end of this week. Eeeeeeeee! 

I know I already mentioned it in Friday’s post, but Miguel had been away for two weeks and he finally came home yesterday. I know two weeks isn’t a long time, but it has been awhile since we’d been apart for that long and I kind of hated being a single dog mom because puppies.are.needy. But he’s back and ready to take on the role for dog dad and breakfast maker and I couldn’t be happier. Also, Layla was SO excited to see him. I’m talking wouldn’t stop hugging and licking his face for five minutes straight. ….that actually sounds disgusting, but I swear it was adorable. 

Aside from dog slobber, let’s talk about these granola bars…

They are my new favorite. Actually, let me back it up. 

Creating more recipes for TAE has forced me to try foods that A) I’ve never tried before or B) have forgotten about. In this situation, cherries were B—I’d completely forgotten about them! I do recall eating them when I was younger and thinking they were just “ok”, which I guess is why I’d forgotten about them. A few weeks ago, I was in the Strip District at a market when I saw fresh cherries that cost next to nothing, so I picked some up and went on my merry way. 

After eating a few and deciding that I liked them, I knew I had to create a recipe with them. But what? Now THAT is the question of my life. I hadn’t made a granola bar recipe in a REALLY long time, so granola bars it was and granola bars it is!

These bars are awesome for several reasons, including the fact that they’re vegan, CHOCOLATE-Y, filled with chia seeds (bonus!), and only seven ingredients. Besides pitting the cherries, you literally just throw everything into a bowl, stir and place in a baking pan before cutting and nomming away. Though there are a few store bought granola bar brands I love, nothing beats homemade granola bars. ….kind of like everything else. HOMEMADE FOOD TRUMPS ALL. 

I stored these bars in an airtight container in the refrigerator because my apartment only has one A/C window unit so it’s only kind of cold…. If you have full on A/C like a normal person, you’d probably be find storing these on the counter. But, if you want to be safe, they taste perfectly delicious stored in the fridge. Regardless, I hope you hop on the cherry-bar train, because that’s totally a thing now. 

Vegan Chocolate Cherry Granola Bars

★★★★★

5 from 1 reviews

• Author: The Almond Eater
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Total Time: 20 mins
• Yield: 10 bars 1x

Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup pitted dates
• 2 tbsp+1 tsp cacao powder (or unsweetened cocoa powder)
• 1 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup+ 2 tbsp organic maple syrup
• 1 cup walnuts
• 3 tbsp chia seeds
• 1/3 cup fresh cherries, pitted

Instructions

1. Pit cherries, chop them into bite-size pieces and set aside.
2. Combine cacao, syrup and walnuts together in a food processor; add dates. Pour mixture into large bowl.
3. Stir in oats and chia seeds by hand; Lastly, add cherries.
4. Line a 8×8 pan with parchment paper and pour mixture into pan; use a spatula to smoothen it out.
5. Place in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, but preferably for an hour, allowing bars to harden.
6. Remove from refrigerator and cut into bars.
7. Enjoy!

Q: Do you make your own granola bars? Did you watch OITNB? 

If you like these, you’ll love…

Raw Chocolate Walnut Bars 

Double Chocolate Date Bars