Elana's Pantry Gluten Free Almond Power Bars

So another looooong day complete!  Nothing like telling yourself that you are going to wake up at 4:15am to go to the gym before work and then deciding to hit the snooze button for the next hour...so in other words, I didn't make it to the gym until about 7:30pm after work and bridesmaid shopping with my sister! But at least I made it to the gym to do a little CrossFit, since it's become quite the addiction of mine...along with spending time in the kitchen mixing up nom noms!!

Today's WOD:

5 Rounds:

200M Run (close to sprint)

50 Squats

Time: 8:12   

Nothing like being tired and forcing some squats in the evening! :)

I know I shouldn't admit to this, but I was looking around on some of my favorite food blogs today at work and came across an old favorite of mine.  Last year, I decided that I was going to give up Gluten and try to go Paleo, in order to, help out some stomach ailments that I was having.  I started to bake some of the recipes from Elana's Pantry, which is a dedicated Gluten Free site.  Some of her recipes have been crowd favorites, so I thought that I would give this another go once I read almond butter in the recipe!  So here is my Thursday night creation...Enjoy!

Gluten Free Almond Power Bars 

(Thanks to Elanas Pantry Recipe)

2 cups almonds (raw)   (I did 2 cups of my favorite nut mixture...Raw fancy mixed nuts from Sunflower - Brazil Nuts, Cashews, Almonds, Filiburts and Pecans)

½ cup flax meal (flax seeds ground in a Vitamix)

½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut

½ cup unsalted creamy roasted almond butter   (Perfect way to use the almond butter grinders at Sunflower or Whole Foods)

½ teaspoon celtic sea salt

½ cup coconut oil   (don't opt out of this...it will help the bars harden, since its solid at room temp)

4 drops stevia

1 tablespoon agave nectar   (I accidentally added a little too much agave...so I skipped the stevia even though I had it on hand)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 cup dark chocolate chips 73% cacao (optional)

Place almonds, flax meal, shredded coconut, almond butter and salt in a food processor.  Pulse briefly, about 10 seconds

In a small sauce pan, melt coconut oil over very low heat.  Remove coconut oil from stove, stir stevia, agave and vanilla into oil

Add coconut oil mixture to food processor and pulse until ingredients form a coarse paste

Press mixture into an 8 x 8 glass baking dish

Chill in refrigerator for 1 hour, until mixture hardens

In a small saucepan, melt chocolate over very low heat, stirring continuously

Spread melted chocolate over bars; return to refrigerator for 30 minutes, until chocolate hardens

Remove from refrigerator, cut into bars and serve

For tomorrow, it's some Lemon Garlic Kale Chips!!! :)