No Bake Balancing Bars

Travel, stress, and a variety of other factors can shift our bodily functions out of whack.  When sleep trouble and digestive discomfort rear there ugly little heads, I like to fight support my body with food.

The two main players in these bars, pistachios and dried plums (see what I did there?  A little rebranding?) have many health benefits.  According to NutritionFacts.org, pistachios my be a better source of melatonin than popular melatonin supplements. In fact, according to one study, consuming 18 pistachios is like taking 3 mg of melatonin!  Dried plums are well known for aiding digestion, with happy side effects like lowering cholesterol and building stronger bones.

These bars are meant to help you sleep better (and do other stuff better too😉).  I mostly stuck to the two aforementioned ingredients for potency, but added a bit of oat flour since it has shown to have positive effects on both areas.

Taste-wise, these are both toddler and husband approved.  Like an oatmeal cookie with benefits.  I used homemade pistachio butter which is so good I am not sure why it isn’t more popular (granted pistachios are a little on the pricey side…but worth it!).  You can also find it online or in some health food stores.  Just make sure the only ingredients are shelled pistachios, and maybe a little salt.

Happy sleeping (and doing other stuff😉)too!

No Bake Balancing Bars

Ingredients:

-1 and 1/3 cup dried plums

-1 cup shelled pistachios

-1/2 cup pistachio butter

-1/2 cup oats, coarsely ground

-1 teaspoon vanilla extract

-1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

-1/4 teaspoon powdered ginger

To Make:

-Combine plums and pistachios in a food processor until evenly blended.

-Add pistachio butter and blend until combined.

-Add oats and spices and blend until combined.

-Spread mixture on 8×8 baking pan lined with parchment paper.  Press down firmly.

-Refrigerate for at least one hour before cutting and serving.  Store remaining bars in airtight container in fridge.

For more plant based ideas head over to the Joyful Gym Rat page on Facebook

Let thy food be thy medicine…and let it be delicious!