Oatmeal breakfast cookies, date nut chews (dehydrated, raw "treats)

[tempus vernum]

Oatmeal Breakfast cookies
3/4 C oil (I used olive)
2/3 C honey
3 or 4 large apples, unpeeled, cored and chopped
2 t vanilla and or small wedge organic lemon

(those 4 ingredients are cooky base -- see next recipe)

Mix in
3 C rolled oats
1 C sunflower seeds
1 C raisens or chopped dates

Let stand for 1/2 to 1 hour to allow the oats to soak up flavors

Drop by spoonful onto parchment paper and dry until firm (one or two days, depending on texture you prefer). I used a cookie sheet that is "naturally" non stick - my stones in the oven on warm. It took just under a day

Variations:
add 1/2 C ground flax seed or 1/2 C sesame seeds
add 1 C shopped nuts
add ground coriander to cooky base

DATE NUT CHEWS --

2 C cooky base
1 C ground rolled oats or oat flour (use food processor to "grind")
1/3 C sunflower seeds, ground (again, use food processor)
2 C chopped dates
1 C coarsely chopped walnuts

Spread onto non stock surface about 1/4" thick. Dry until firm enough to cut into squares (make them quire small - they dry the squares a little more. I have started making small "scoops" with my cookie scooper.

Variations 1 c raisenf ro 1 C of dates
sunflower seeds instead of nuts



If you don't have a dehydrator, you can dry these in the oven as low as possible - hopefully betwween 105 and 120 but up to 150 works. Be sure to turn them every few hours.

Edited to say - I have made these several times - I happened to notice it sounded like I hadn't done it. That's because I pasted this out of an email to a friend LOL

[TrinMama]

I was browsing new posts and saw this...normally I'd never be in the vegetarian forum BUT the date nut chews caught my attention.

Have you ever had a Lara Bar? Anyway, they are made just with dates, cashews, and sometimes some other things. Maybe other nuts, not sure. They are decent, but DH and I started to make our own, and I thought your date nut chews would be like them.

Here's the "recipe" for our date-bars, which are also super simple and really yummy. Even our kids love them!

All you do is take some dates, pitted, and chop them up like crazy in a food processor. Then you take some cashews and do the same, then mix them together. I don't ever measure, but I know you want more dates than cashews. It will be a sticky crumbly mixture, but you can smash it together into bars. I found the other day that taking a piece of plastic wrap and laying it over a muffin pan is a great mold. You scoop some of the mixture into the lined muffin cup, then using the sides of the wrap, push the mixture down until firm and packed. Then you also have an instant wrapper! They are great for snacks in luches, on the go, at home...YUM!

[tempus vernum]

Interesting, I am going to try that. We never have had lara bars. Thanks for sharing - sounds yummy