Name: Sturdy and Delicious Super Seed Granola Bars
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 16
Ingredients: 2 cups rolled oats; ½ cup sunflower seeds; 2 Tbs. flax seeds; 2 Tbs. chia seeds; 2 Tbs. sesame seeds; ¼ tsp. salt; 1 cup pitted dates; ½ cup honey; ⅓ cup coconut oil (or other vegetable oil); ¼ cup almond butter

Jump to Recipe

Our family has a love/hate relationship with our hiking snacks. When the mood strikes, we want to shove some sustenance into a bag and hit the trail.

super seed granola bars for hiking and camping — These granola bars check all the boxes!

On the other hand, when we stop to snack after an exhilarating day in the woods, we want to eat something tasty. Something that isn’t GORP. Something that will make us love outdoor life even more.

When we first started hiking with kids, we kept the pantry stocked with every type of protein or power bar imaginable. They were certainly quick and easy, but it didn’t take long before nobody would eat them anymore. The thrill was gone.

I started experimenting with various recipes for portable trail bars. Most were too sweet. Many of them fell apart and had to be eaten as crumbs on the trail. And not once did my kids ask me to repeat a recipe until now.

Finding the Perfect Granola Bar Recipe

wet ingredients for a granola bar recipe. — A mixture of dates, almond butter, and honey. Yum!

I found myself with some free time last weekend and decided to give my experimentation with homemade granola bars one more go. I was going for superior sturdiness, big flavor, and optimum nutrition — a grab-and-go granola bar for day hikes, long hours at school, or a post-aikido treat.

I finally hit the mark. These granola bars have been so popular that I’ve had to wrap them up and hide them in the freezer. They are sweet without tasting like dessert. They can live in the bottom of your daypack without turning to crumbs. And they disappear at an alarming rate, which is a sure sign that my kids approve of them!

These sturdy granola bars are made with almond butter, but you can substitute sun butter if there are nut allergies in your family. You can also use gluten-free oats to make them gluten-free, and really, any mixture of seeds will work in this recipe.

16 bars

Sturdy and Delicious Super Seed Granola Bars

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients

2 cups rolled oats
½ cup sunflower seeds
2 Tbs. flax seeds
2 Tbs. chia seeds
2 Tbs. sesame seeds
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup pitted dates
½ cup honey
⅓ cup coconut oil (or other vegetable oil)
¼ cup almond butter

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 300℉.

Mix the dry ingredients (the first six) in a large bowl.

Add the last four ingredients to a saucepan and cook over medium-low heat while stirring gently.

After the wet ingredients are mixed together, add them to a food processor and blend. Alternatively, if you’re feeling lazy, like me, you can simply mash everything together with a wooden spoon until it looks fairly uniform.

Add your date mixture to the dry ingredients and stir them together until all the dry ingredients look damp and glossy. This will require some elbow grease, and the mixture will be thick and sticky.

Line a 9x13-inch cake pan with parchment paper so that it hangs over the long sides. You will use this as a sling to remove the bars from the pan.

Now spread the mixture into the pan and press down firmly with an offset spatula (or your fingers).

Bake for 35 minutes. Let the granola bars cool completely before cutting into rectangles or squares.

These will keep for a few weeks in the pantry if they are hidden well. Otherwise, all bets are off, especially if you have teenagers.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 286Total Fat: 13gSaturated Fat: 3gUnsaturated Fat: 10gCholesterol: 24mgSodium: 723mgCarbohydrates: 38gFiber: 4gSugar: 18gProtein: 7g

Nutritional information has been automatically calculated and not verified.

Don’t have time to make these lovelies? In a pinch, these are the bars that both kids and adults in our family love:

Dark Chocolate Nuts & Sea Salt KIND Bars: These are awesome. The perfect mix of salty and sweet. 5g of sugar, 6g of protein.
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Larabar: Gluten-free, non-GMO, and Kosher. 6g of protein and 19g of sugar.
Kate’s Real Food Granola Bars with Chocolate, Cherry, and Almond – The priciest of the bunch, but quite delicious. 9g of protein and 3g of sugar. Organic and gluten-free.

Let me know how these turned out for you in the comments, and please share if you have any awesome, trail-worthy snack ideas.

Sturdy and Delicious Super-Seed Granola Bars for Hiking

Finding the Perfect Granola Bar Recipe