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Chocolate-Avocado Breakfast Bars

By Valentina K. Wein

4.77 from 13 votes

Oct 23, 2018

How about adding a whole bunch of nutrients to delicious, unprocessed chocolate to get you going in the morning?

These breakfast bars are sweet, crunchy, and incredibly satisfying. You might even feel like you’re having a treat — oh wait, you are!  Chocolate-Avocado Breakfast Bars taste like a treat and they’re packed with unprocessed goodness.  So when you enjoy this recipe, you’re actually treating your body as well as you’re treating your palate.  Scrumptious and healthy — all in one.  Perfect.

4.77 from 13 votes

Chocolate-Avocado Breakfast Bars

By: Valentina K. Wein

These breakfast bars are sweet, crunchy, and incredibly satisfying.

Prep: 35 minutes mins

Cook: 35 minutes mins

Total: 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Servings: 12 bars

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Ingredients 

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• ▢ 2 cups oats
• ▢ ½ cup almond meal
• ▢ ½ cup shredded unsweetened coconut
• ▢ ½ teaspoon sea salt
• ▢ ¼ cup coconut oil, melted, plus 2 teaspoons
• ▢ 3 tablespoons amaranth, "popped" (see note)
• ▢ ½ pound dark chocolate, finely chopped
• ▢ ½ ripe avocado, medium-large
• ▢ 3 tablespoons honey

Instructions 

• Preheat the oven to 375°F, and line an 8x8-inch) baking pan with parchment paper. Set aside. (Use a large piece that will cover the sides and cut slits in each corner so that it will lay flat.)
• Add the oats, almond meal, shredded coconut and salt into a large mixing bowl. Drizzle with the coconut oil, mix until everything is evenly coated, and then pour the mixture onto a baking sheet and roast in the preheated 375°F oven until it's golden brown, about 20 minutes. (Do not wash the bowl you mixed in -- set it aside for later.)
• While the oat mixture is roasting, melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler and mash the avocado with a fork until it's as smooth as possible -- you will need ½ cup. (Here’s a photographic guide to peeling and cutting an avocado.)
• Pour the melted chocolate into the saved mixing bowl and add the mashed avocado and honey. Mix until smooth.
• Once the oat mixture is out of the oven pour it into the chocolate-avocado mixture, along with the popped amaranth.
• Stir until everything is evenly blended and pour it into the parchment-lined baking pan. Use your hands to firmly press down, spreading it evenly into the corners of the pan. Then use a large, flat-bottomed metal spatula to press down again, to flatten it evenly.
• Cover the pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, and ideally overnight, before cutting it into 12 evenly sized bars.

Notes

To pop amaranth:

Heat a dry, large, deep skillet -- that has a lid -- over high heat until extremely hot. Carefully add about 1 teaspoon of amaranth grains, cover the pot, and allow them to pop while shaking side-to-side constantly. If they don't start popping within about 5-10 seconds, the pan isn't hot enough.

As soon as the popping slows, quickly and carefully pour into a large bowl. The goal is to get as many to pop as possible, but not to let them burn - if there are some unpopped ones, that's okay. Repeat the process, 1 teaspoon at a time, until all the amaranth is popped.

 

Nutrition

Calories: 298kcal, Carbohydrates: 27g, Protein: 5g, Fat: 19g, Saturated Fat: 11g, Sodium: 103mg, Potassium: 264mg, Fiber: 5g, Sugar: 9g, Vitamin A: 20IU, Vitamin C: 1mg, Calcium: 39mg, Iron: 3.5mg

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About the Author

Valentina K. Wein is a recipe developer, food photographer and owner of the popular food blog, Cooking On The Weekends. Her focus is working with whole foods to create beautiful, comforting recipes for casual entertaining. Outside the worlds of food and photography, Valentina’s other passion is her family (including her two young boys, her husband and her dog, Maple.)

You can also keep up with Valentina’s recipes on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter.