All of the Fig – None of the Newton

Sometimes you – or your kids – want something sweet, which can wind up being a mess for your healthy, whole-food diet. Recently, Food Babe posted about one sandwich bar that we used to think was healthy, but has a dizzying (sometimes literally) array of unnecessary chemicals in the ingredients.

That inspired me to grab the simple fig paste I’d made yesterday out of the fridge and try an easy, healthy, replacement for my less-healthy childhood treat. It turned out to be even easier than I’d thought – check this out!

Simple, Healthy Fig Bars

Ingredients

1 cup ground dried organic figs, ground to a paste (instructions for grinding, below)

1/2 cup organic hemp seed

1/2 cup salted pumpkin seeds, ground – I used sprouted, salted (I used Go Raw brand)

Cut the figs into smallish pieces and process by pulsing in a strong food processor. If you do not cut them up into bits, they will gum up in your processor, and possibly burn out the motor – trust me on this one :-). Once the processor is running easily, leave it in the “on” position until the fig bits gather into a ball, about 1 minute.

Take about 1 cup of the fig paste on put on a large plastic cutting board or silicone baking mat. Press with your hands or a rolling pin into a disk about 1/4 inch thin.

Sprinkle a mix of the hemp seed and pumpkin seeds over the disk and press in with your hands. Flip the disk and repeat. Do this a few more times until the figs are holding as much of the seed as they can.

Start cutting the disk into rectangular strips that when folded over (see pic) form a sandwich bar square.