Healthy Cereal Granola Bars (Paleo, Nut Free)

These healthy cereal granola bars are no bake, Paleo friendly and nut free. They're made with grain free cereal and sunflower seed butter, lightly sweetened with honey and filled with shredded coconut and pumpkin seeds. This is a great Paleo snack recipe - kid friendly and easy to make!

I've had a few people ask for a healthy Paleo granola bar recipe but I've been hesitant to make one...only because granola bars are often filled with lots of nuts and lots of sugar. Which, is fine if you want more of a dessert, but isn't something I consider a healthy snack.

However, having found Lovebird's grain free cereal, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to create a low sugar granola bar. And one that's nut free too! (Not that there's anything wrong with nuts, but they are quite high in calories and they are often over-consumed when one switches to a grain free diet.)

So today I bring to you these healthy cereal granola bars!

Recipe Highlights

• Paleo friendly: grain free & dairy free
• Refined sugar free: lightly sweetened with honey
• Nut free: made with sunbutter, coconut and pumpkin seeds
• No bake

This is a great cereal bar recipe to prep ahead for breakfast or pack in lunches. In addition, these bars are kid friendly!

Ingredients in Healthy Cereal Granola Bars

Here's a list of what you need to make these no bake granola bars (full recipe in the recipe card below):

• Paleo Cereal: I used Lovebird unsweetened cereal
• Shredded Coconut
• Pumpkin Seeds
• Cacao Butter: helps hold the cereal bars together. May be substituted with coconut oil or coconut butter, but cacao butter works the best.
• Sunflower Seed Butter: needed to hold the bars together. May be substituted with any nut or seed butter.
• Honey: used to sweetened these cereal bars
• Vanilla Extract: optional but added for flavor
• Collagen: optional but increases the protein content

If you want these breakfast bars to be 100% Paleo, I recommend using Lovebird's grain free cereal. However, any cheerio-shaped cereal will work as a replacement.

How to Make Cereal Granola Bars

These cereal snack bars are made in a bowl, pressed into an 8" x 8" baking dish and chilled to set. This recipe makes 12 cereal bars. Here's what you need to do:

First, line an 8" x 8" baking dish with foil. You can use parchment too, but I think foil works better.

Next, in a large mixing bowl, combine the cereal, shredded coconut and pumpkin seeds.

In a small sauce pan, melt the cacao butter. (Microwaving it works too.) Mix in the sunflower seed butter, honey and vanilla. Once smooth, add in the collagen.

Then, pour the wet mixture over the dry mixture and combine with a spatula until the cereal is fully coated.

Next, pour the cereal into the lined baking dish. Use a piece of parchment paper (or wax paper) to firmly press the cereal bars down. This step is important to ensure that they stick together.

Lastly, chill the bars in the fridge or freezer to firm. Once solid, cut the bars and eat!

How to Store Cereal Granola Bars

These bars stay solid at room temperature (if using cacao butter), but are best kept in the fridge. Place them in a sealed container in the fridge up to one week.

More Nut Free Paleo Snack Recipes

Check out these other nut free Paleo snack recipes from the blog:

• Coconut Hemp Energy Bites
• Dark Chocolate Coconut Clusters
• Healthy Zucchini Banana Muffins
• Cookie Dough Protein Balls

Enjoy!

Print