Healthy Rice Crispy Treats are a no bake crunchy sweet treat that is gluten free and dairy free. Simple and fun to make the perfect family fun recipe without all the preservatives.
Sometimes we need a sweet gooey treat! Well, I do at least. I like to have one that satisfies without too much guilt. My Mom use to make rice crispy treats as a special treat when I was a girl growing up, so I have an affinity for the crunchy gooey classic. However, I now know that those marshmallows…. not so good for the ol’ body. I wanted to come up with a recipe that gave me the crunch and gooeyness with a bit of healthy combined in there.
These bars have brown rice crispies and oatmeal with dried fruit, chia seeds and almond butter and honey. Because they are not cooked there is not a binder so the bars are best kept cold so that they hold their shape better. Though my husband like them at room temperature because of they were more gooey, whatever makes the guy happy. I actually liked them cold. You can substitute whatever dried fruit is your favorite, I choose the cherries for their antioxidant punch, but dried blueberries or cranberries would work just as well.
I have also made these bars with a chocolate drizzle on top because mama likes everything better with chocolate, but the guys preferred them without. Men are from Mars…I mean chocolate makes everything better!
Healthy Rice Crispy Treats
Ingredients
Bars:
- 2 cups rolled oats gluten free
- 1 1/2 cups brown rice krispies
- 1/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
- 1/4 cup whole roasted almonds roughly chopped
- 1 tablespoon chia seeds
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup peanut butter or almond butter
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 rounded cup fresh blueberries or 3/4 cup dried blueberries
Dark Chocolate Glaze:
- 1/2 cup enjoy life semi sweet chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup coconut cream
Instructions
Bars
- Line an 9×13 square pan with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl combine the oats, rice krispies, coconut, almonds, chia seeds and salt. Mix together.
- In a small microwave safe bowl combine the almond butter and honey. Microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute or until the mixture is hot and pourable. Add the vanilla and mix again.
- Add the honey mixture to the dry oat mixture and mix until everything is moist and combined. Gently stir in the cherries. Press the mixture into the prepared pan and then using the back of a measuring cup press the mixture into the pan until it is tightly packed. Cover and place in the freezer for 1 hour.
Dark Chocolate Glaze
- In a small bowl, combine chocolate chips and 1/4 cup of coconut cream and microwave for one minute. Stir until completely melted.
- Drizzle back and forth on top of bars and return to the freezer.
- Cut into 9-12 bars
- Once the bars are completely dry, store in an airtight container at room temperature.
Categories:
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These are great! Instead of the almonds I substituted the chocolate covered sunflower seeds from Trader Joes that are colorful and just omitted the chocolate drizzle and they came out great!
That sounds like a pretty awesome substitute. I will have to check out those sunflower seeds, they sound delicious.