Chocolate Chip Lentil Oatmeal Bars

Does anyone remember the last time I tried to make healthy bars? Yes, the photos were not the best, but the most embarrassing thing about that post was that the bars I made didn’t even fill up the whole pan. Who wants a recipe to make only half a pan of bars? Why, past Jessica, why did that even make it on the blog in the first place?

However, it’s old posts like this that I keep around as proof of how much things have changed since the beginning of She Bakes Here. At first, I would just post anything that I felt like baking that week and I would take maybe 10 minutes out of my evening, usually after work, to take photos and upload them. A lot of my favourite recipes were posted during the first year, but there were probably a lot that I would cringe at if I had to go back and shift through it all.

Starting in 2012, I realized that if I wanted to keep doing this, I had to step it up a bit. I traded my point and shoot for a DSLR camera and started to schedule my baking on weekends so I could take photos during the day rather than at night. If I had a disaster with a recipe, I started to work through it and wouldn’t post it unless I was satisfied and it passed my taste-testers approval (mostly Trevor).

I still have a long way to go and a lot more to learn, but it’s sometimes nice to look back and see where it all first started. This month marked the 2nd anniversary/birthday of She Bakes Here (first post here) and in a typical fashion, I forgot to do anything really special for it. Instead, I celebrated by reading some cringe-worthy blog posts from 2011 and enjoyed these delicious chocolate chip lentil oatmeal bars. Made with pureed red lentils, oats, ground flax, maple syrup, chia seeds and chocolate chips, these bars are the perfect balance of sweetness and energy-bursting goodness to get you through your day.

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Yield: One 8x8 pan

Chocolate Chip Lentil Oatmeal Bars

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup red lentils
• 1 cup of water
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup ground flax
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 2 tbsp chia seeds
• 1/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Cook lentils and water in a small pot. Bring to a boil, turn down the heat and slowly simmer for 15- 20 minutes until the lentils are soft. If you have a food processor, add the cooked lentils and a 1/4 cup of water and process until smooth. If you do not have a food processor, you can mash the cooked lentils with a fork and add a bit of water to keep the lentil mixture soft.
2. Preheat your oven to 300F.
3. In a large bowl, combine lentil puree, rolled oats, whole wheat flour, ground flax, cinnamon, maple syrup, chia seeds and chocolate chips and stir with a wooden spoon.
4. Line an 8×8 square pan with parchment paper. Press the mixture firmly into the pan.
5. Bake the bars for 35-40 minutes until the edges are a golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool for at least 10 minutes before transferring the bars to a cooling rack. Let the bars cool completely before slicing.

Recipe adapted from Two Saucy Sisters