The other day I asked Craig to go and buy some hemp seed. We have a hemp seed plant just across the street from our house, but we rarely ever buy any. I love nuts and seeds and hemp seeds are extremely good for you so I thought that I would get creative and start using them in some recipes.

He came back with this.

A giant bag of hemp seed. 10 pounds to be exact! That’s a lot of hemp seed! We stored some in a container in the fridge and the giant bag is in the freezer so you can expect to see many more hemp seed recipes in the near future!

Today I finally decided to put them to use and made some hemp seed granola bars that are loaded with many other wonderful health gems. I decided to go a little crazy and add in everything I love. Oats, cranberries, apricots, pecans and sunflower seeds too. 🙂

They were perfect! A softer granola bar with crunchy seeds and nuts and sweet dried cranberries and apricots. Also made with pure maple syrup and whole wheat flour.

Protein-Packed Hemp Seed Granola Bars

If there were a magical granola bar that would make you a super human, this would be it!

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup pecan pieces
• 1/2 cup shelled hemp seeds
• 1/4 cup unsalted sunflower seeds
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup chopped dried apricots (about 10)
• 1 flax egg ( 2 tablespoons ground flax seed + 3 tablespoons warm water)
• 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/4 cup sunflower oil
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the oats, flour, pecans, hemp seeds, sunflower seeds, cranberries and apricots.

In a separate small mixing bowl whisk together the ground flax and warm water to make your flax egg. Add the maple syrup, oil, applesauce and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the medium mixing bowl along with the dry and mix until combined.

Transfer the mixture to a 9 x 13 baking pan and spread evenly, pressing the mixture down with a spatula.

Bake for 20-22 minutes, until lightly golden. Allow to cool completely before cutting into bars. Cut them whatever size your heart tummy desires! 🙂

I was also very busy this afternoon making perogies again.

We do love our perogies around here! I love eating them, but making them sure is time consuming! It took about an hour and a half from start to finish to make double the recipe. I cleaned as I went so it made things a little easier at the end.

It was worth it though to see this kid actually eating and enjoying her food!

She also likes to help make them!

It was a long day in the kitchen and now I have big plans to relax. Who wouldn’t want to cuddle this little cutie?