I am a child of the 90’s. Totally. I was obsessed with the Spice Girls, the Macarena, Seinfeld, Friends & Strawberry Nutri-Grain bars (in no particular order). Frosted Strawberry Pop-tarts came in at a close second and will therefore get an honorable mention. Just how did big brand America ever convince our parents to give us sugar for breakfast (and feel good about it in the process)? It baffles me. But I loved it. And it created the need for something sweet every day.

Flash forward 20 years & step in amazing, creamy, chewy Strawberry Almond Butter Oat Bars. It’s like my favorite childhood processed snacks made healthy. They’re oat squares held together by healthy fats stemming from almond butter & coconut oil. I attempted a no-egg vegan baked base that held together beautifully, using nut butter as a binder and pure maple syrup as my unrefined sweetener. These oat bars are also gluten free because I used wheat free old fashioned rolled oats. Oats are naturally gluten free, but are often subject to wheat cross-contamination. In retrospect, you could also use Bob’s Red Mill quick oats. The finer texture would help it stick together with greater ease. It would be more of a flour, whereas with old fashioned rolled oats you really do get a lot more of that raw oat texture with every bite.

I developed this recipe on Snapchat, with you guys, and it worked out very well with a few very minor tweaks to the original course of action. Not bad, eh? (14 years in Canada is slowly starting to take it’s course). I’ve actually caught myself using the “eh” here and there and it’s like- wait, what? Did I just say that? And am like yep… you totally did. The other thing about me is I speak very formal English. Almost like, textbook English. My friends find it endearing and funny. It’s like I never take the shortcuts. I have many a “Lost in Translation” story about my early days in this wonderful place.

Back to dessert for now… Because we all love a good, chunky oat square with a ton of fruit to celebrate this bout of warmer weather. These are good hot or cold. I actually prefer them cold, after they’ve spent the night in the refrigerator and have set in beautifully. I like to enjoy them with coffee in the morning as much as with tea in the afternoon or with coconut, dairy free ice cream in the evening. They’re dessert that doubles as breakfast and they’re super nutritious. You’re eating: oats, almond butter, homemade strawberry chia seed jam, coconut oil, pumpkin seeds, toasted coconut & hazelnuts. Yep, that’s all that went into them. And you can easily customize the topping to whatever you like. So let’s do this!