Flapjack Bars & Nut Butter Spreads

I found two more awesome recipes that I want to share with you all. They're really versitile, and really easy, and really healthy.

FLAPJACK BARS
I've made these every sunday for about a month and my husband LOVES them. We eat them as part of breakfast every morning.

OVEN: 400 degrees

F Ingredients:
- approximately* 1/2 cup applesauce
- 1/2 cup dried fruit, nuts or seeds variety #1**
- 3/4 cup dried fruit, nuts or seeds variety #2**
- 1/4 cup raw (demerara) sugar (I suspect you could substitute honey or regular sugar)
- 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
- 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
- 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
- scant 1 cup rolled oats
- 2/3 cup whole-wheat flour
- 2/3 cup shredded coconut
- 1/4 cup golden flax seeds
- 2 eggs
- optional: handful of mini chocolate chips

*depending on how soft you like the bars to be, adjust the amount of applesauce
**use whatever you like best for these two ingredients. My favorite yet has been dried blueberries and pistachio nuts.

1. Grease a baking vesicle (I use a glass pyrex, but tin or stone would work) and line with parchment paper, leaving long ends hanging over the sides of the pan.

2. Put the apple sauce in a large bowl with variety #1, variety #2, sugar, sunflower, sesame and pumpkin seeds (and chocolate chips if using). Stir until well combined.

3. Add the oats, flour, coconut and eggs. Stir until well combined.

4. Turn the mixture into the baking pan and spread to the edges in an even layer. Bake for about 25 minutes or until golden and just firm to the touch. (Note: I cover my pan completely with tin foil while baking. This prevents most black, crispy edges. You have to allow maybe 7-10 minutes more for the bake time when doing this.)

5. Leave to cool in the pan. When cool, lift the granola block out using the paper edges. Allow to cool a little more, then cut into bars. Cool completely before covering.

NUT BUTTER SPREADS
There are a variety of other nut butters besides Peanut, though that's certainly the cheapest and in my opinion, the yummiest. However, I've made this with cashew butter and it was a hit with the hubby.

Ingredients:
- Nut butter (Peanut butter, cashew butter, almond butter, etc.)
- 1 grated carrot
- seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, golden flax, etc.)
- dried currants

1. If neccesary, warm the nut butter in the microwave for 10-20 seconds, until soft, but not melty.

2. Stir in prefered amounts of ingredients.

3. Spread on toast or crackers!

Don't feel chained to either of these ingredient lists. I'm coming to find that these really are shell recipes and they can be tweeked to meet the taste of the eater. Have fun with it!

A note on the ingredients - looking at them, these may seem like really expensive dishes. Here's my trick: shop bulk. Whole Foods has a great bulk food section. The food is kept in gravity bins and you open the spicket and allow only the amount you need to fall into your bag. I take a measuring cup and buy only the amount I need - yep, you can buy these ingredients 2 tablespoons at a time! When you only pay for what you need, you pay alot less. If, however, you fall in love with these recipes like my family did, it may be cheaper to just get bigger quantities and store them at home for use every week.