Chewy Fruit And Nut Bar (Raw!)

Only 5 ingredients in this fruit and nut bar making them an easy, healthy snack! These lemon blueberry bars are soft, chewy, and full of energy. Loaded with dried fruits these raw energy bars make an easy mid-day pick me up!

A busy day often means poor choices in the food department. Struggling to give yourself actual food while shuffling kids around is stressful at best.

Which is why my biggest nutrition tip as a Certified Nutrition Coach is to make sure you have prepped, healthy snacks ready to go! And these fruit and nut bars are the perfect solution.

You'll love these snack bars because:

• easy to make (only 5 ingredients and no baking)
• refreshing
• loaded with energy
• dairy-free, gluten-free, paleo, vegan, whole30
• kid-approved

Don't overlook the importance of having healthy snacks on hand in grab-and-go situations. It's a lifesaver! Likewise, focusing on snacks like this makes for super simple meal prep.

Ingredients You'll Need

These bars have one thing in mind and that's energy! This means that they're base is made up primarily of dried fruit. If you want to make them more fueling though read on.

Dates: a natural sugar and a great energy boost! Dates don't freeze solid so this means the bars can be eaten even when they're pretty chilled.

Dried cherries and blueberries: sweetening the bars a bit more with some extra dried fruits. Any will work but these two make the bars really refreshing.

Walnuts: walnuts give the fruit and nut bars a bit of substance and a dose of healthy fats.

Fresh lemon juice: fresh lemon juice will give a more potent flavor to the healthy snack bars.

How To Make Fruit And Nut Bars

1. Process the walnuts in a food processor until mostly ground.
2. Add in the dates, cherries, and lemon juice and blend until combined.
3. Scrape the mixture into a bowl and add in the blueberries and collagen if using.
4. Dump the mixture into a lined baking pan and smooth it out evenly.
5. Pop in the freezer for thirty minutes.

How You Can Add MORE Fuel To Healthy Snack Bars

Want to make the homemade fruit and nut bar recipe a bit more fueling and well-rounded? Add in collagen powder!

Collagen is a beneficial part of bone broth and wonderful for your hair, skin, and nails. Learn more about collagen and why you may want to boost your intake. However, unlike bone broth, it doesn’t taste like well, bone broth.

Plus, it takes these fruit and nut bars from a crazy energy boost to a healthier, protein-packed snack.

Plus, if ethically sourced one of the purest forms of protein you can give to your kids! I grab my collagen from Perfect Supplements and while I love their big tub of powder, I love the individual packets even more!

I find collagen the easiest way to boost protein in smoothies, vegan yogurts, oatmeal, or any other dish. It blends and mixes well and there are zero flavors to it. Plus, Perfect Supplements sources their collagen from pasture-raised (grass-fed) cows. So, I trust it.

Grab some collagen powder and use code mamabear10 to save some money.

Important Teaching Tips

Because these fruit and nut bars don't have a binding ingredient, they do come out a bit sticky. Thus wrap each bar in parchment paper to store. 

They can be stored in the fridge or the freezer and are best eaten chilled. Otherwise, when left at room temperature they're a bit too sticky.

Also, you can easily use any dried fruits to switch up the flavor! A few of our favorites are:

• dried strawberries
• chopped dried pears
• whole dried cranberries

The less you grind up the walnuts, the more sustenance the bar will have.

Want to make these more candy-like? Add in mini chocolate chips!

Lastly, make sure to soak the dates in warm water for twenty minutes prior to blending them. The softer they are, the better they process into “date paste” without having to add much water.

Frequently Asked Questions About Fruit And Nut Bars

Other Dairy & Gluten-Free Snack Recipes You'll Love

• Chocolate coconut energy bites
• Banana cinnamon balls
• Superfood bites
• Triple berry protein fluf
• Peanut butter and jam protein balls
• Chocolate Chia Seed Protein Balls
• Banana cinnamon energy balls
• Protein bars topped in chocolate
• Macadamia chocolate protein balls
• Chocolate fudge protein balls
• Energizing protein bar
• No-bake bounce balls
• Cookie dough balls
• Salted caramel protein fluff
• Cookie dough overnight protein oats
• Easy, no-bake vanilla protein bar
• High protein snack recipes

Healthy snack bars are easy to whip together and absolutely tasty. All the dried fruits make them a great mid-afternoon treat because they're so full of energy and easy to munch on the go.

Thus, whip up a double batch of snack bars, wrap them, store them and never worry about what to munch on!