Make awsome fruit and nut bars?

When I was still gainfully employed I used to enjoy store bought Lara bars, about 1 a day. Tasty, relatively nutritious, simple. Sure, why not!

Oh yeah, because they're not cheap and they have a somewhat weird texture that's pretty "datey".

Now that I'm not working a paid job and am much more involved in cooking organic and wholesome foods for my family, I decided this was something I could do myself.

I tried a sample of a coconut cream pie Lara bar at a local grocery store and promptly started searching for a recipe. I didn't find exactly what I was looking for, so I tried making my own. First try was with pecans and cashews. Eh. I can do better. Now, I've done better and I'm sharing it!!

So, here's my very simple, very tasty recipe for homemade fruit and nut bars that take all of about 5 minutes to make.

Coconut Lush Fruit and Nut Bars (mine are completely organic)

.25c cashews (Trader Joe's or PCC baking)

.25c almonds (Trader Joe's or PCC baking)
.5c shredded coconut (PCC baking)
.25c deglet dates (PCC bulk)
.25c medjool dates (PCC produce)
2t coconut butter (PCC baking)

Put all the nuts, the coconut and the coconut butter in a food processor. Let 'er rip until the nuts are about half as big as you really want them. Just break them up a bit. I break them up a lot since I'm feeding this to young children. Remove the pits from the medjool dates and then toss the dates in there too! Let it go again until it's mixed to your liking. Again, I let it go until it's all really small and well mixed since I'm feeding it to little kids. It's probably going to look a little dry, but when you pinch it with your fingers, it should stick together. This makes about 1 cup of fruit and nut bar.

My favorite thing to do at this point is to press it into the lid of my butter keeper. It's a rectangle and just deep enough for me to fit a while batch in. Then I stick it all in the fridge for about 30 minutes or until I open the fridge again. Turn it out, slice and stick any leftovers back in the fridge in your favorite food storage device. These would probably last quite awhile since everything is shelf stable, but a batch this size has never lasted more than a few days in my household of 4.