Aloha, the Hawaiian’s sure have a beautiful language, don’t they? There’s not a whole lot that isn’t beautiful about Hawaii, and recently we were blessed to vacation there.
Grain Free Cacao Granola Bars, that’s a mouth full isn’t it? They were a hit when I made these for our family that we just visited while in Hawaii. I was having trouble not eating them all in one sitting, but my sister in love, had some better self-control and brought them out for a few evenings in a row after dinner and we all shared them while enjoying time with one another.
Recently my husband and I were fortunate enough to win two free airline tickets to Hawaii. Well they were free airline tickets, we chose the Hawaii part. We are also fortunate to have relatives that live in Hawaii. a win win combination. Besides being able to stay with family it also gave this trip all that much more meaning and memories seeing and spending time with those we haven’t spent that much time with in many years.
I love to cook and bake so it was only natural for me to spend a little time in the kitchen while we were there. Not too much time mind you as we had things to do like snorkeling, and beach walks, and swimming, but more about that later.
While I plan to tell you all about our trip to Hawaii in another blog post I can’t help but share some of the highlights that we had while we were there. I mentioned earlier we shared these Grain Free Cacao Granola Bars around the table after we had dinner out on the lanai(patio). One night I made my One pot pasta, it’s so easy it was a great vacation meal. The highlight was almost every night after dinner we would just sit around with the extended family and visit, sharing remembrances of different memories we had, or stories that we all enjoyed. We did ton’s of laughing and made more memories, it was awesome. Take time to hold your family close and make time to visit those that don’t live nearby, it’s well worth it.
Mahalo.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup walnuts roughly chopped
- 3/4 cup cashews roughly chopped
- 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
- 3 Tablespoons hemp hearts
- 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
- 3 Tablespoons chia seeds
- 3 Tablespoons flax seeds
- 1/2 cup dried organic unsweetened coconut
- 12 medjool Dates-soaked per instructions
- 1/2 cup almond butter
- 1/4 cup coconut oil melted
- 1/4 cup cacao powder
- Pinch of Sea salt
- 3/4 cup Enjoy Life Chocolate chips
- 3 Tablespoons Almond butter
- 3 tablespoons coconut Oil
Instructions
- Place Walnuts through coconut into food processor, pulse until nuts and seeds are broken up but not ground small.
- Add dates, pitted and soaked in 3/4 cup of warm water.
- Add almond butter, coconut oil, cacao powder,and sea salt.
- Process until begins to form into a dough ball.
- Remove from food processor and spread into 9x9 glass dish.
- In small sauce pan, melt over low heat chocolate chips, almond butter, and coconut oil, stirring frequently.
- When melted, pour over bars and spread with spatula.
- Refrigerate for a few hours to overnight.
- Cut and serve. Store in refrigerator.
Tags: cacao Grain Free granola snacks

1 Comment
Being the “Sister-in-Law” (feel more like just a sister) who lives in Hawai`i, I can vouch for these tasty little morsels. They are soooo good. What is amazing about them is not only the taste, but what they have in them are good for you too. We all truly enjoyed them!
A little more about Val’s visit to Hawai`i. They left several days ago and we are still missing them!!! So many wonderful memories were generated over many delicious, healthy meals. My family will have those memories to enjoy for years to come and the recipes Val left with us will be enjoyed for as long.