Oatmeal Walnut Rasin Larabars

These are crazy good. But here's why I was hesitant:

1. No chocolate.

2. They're for hippies. Crazy, far out dude, Woodstock-going, macrame-doing (love ya mom) hippies. And while I'm definitely a hippy, these are raw food. It all seems a bit hocus-pocus sometimes.

3. How the heck do these things stay together without any liquid??

But I LOVED them. And here's why:

1. The fact that it's just oats, raisins, and walnuts (and vanilla and salt) means that these bars are so pungently flavorful. It's pure raisin, oat, and walnut all the way through.

2. They feel healthy. But are sweet and delicious (See above ^^). I added oat bran, so maybe I'm more of a hippy than I think I am.
And just try to forget the whole raw thing. It's not weird if you don't think about it.

3. They definitely stay together. People make "caramels" out of dates and cashews...this is not what these are, and yes the oats make them not stay together as well as pure pureed dried fruit would, but they can easily be formed into balls or bars.
It's like playdoh, except with a different comforting aroma.

4. These are fast to make. Like, 15 minutes kind of fast. They'd be good for breakfast or snack on the go.

Real life means eating one of the bars from really cute parchment paper while carrying character shoes.

I wrapped these up like how you'd do a christmas present, though it really was sort of too big a sheet of parchment, so one side was thick and hard to peel back. It's green and hippy though, not to use plastic.

Dude.

Oatmeal Raisin Walnut Larabars

Ingredients:
1/2 cup raisins (80g)
6 tablespoons quick oats (30g)
1-2 tablespoons oat bran (if you're feeling like you belong in the 70's)
1/2 cup walnuts (40g)
1/8 tsp plus 1/16 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

Pulverize the oats in a food processor or powerful blender, then add all other ingredients and blend very well. Form into balls or bars.

From Chocolate Covered Katie.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some cookies in the oven that need rotating.

P.S. Shout out to Sunhye, who wanted me to post this recipe because she saw me eating it today. I told her how good it was. I made the pitch. So here it is!