Chocolate Cherry Oat Bars

With pregnancy, we refer to the newborn adjustment period as the 4th trimester. With marathon training, there is the 17th week of training. You live and train for 16 weeks preparing for one single day. You develop mentally and physically for an event that inevitably ends within hours. The 17th week then yields the mental and physical void. My brain has time to wander past how many miles I need to run and at what pace. My body has time to heal the same muscle groups that have been overworked. It is an odd period of time where the past doesn’t matter and the future is unseen. It would seem like this stage would bear more time to live freely without the underlying sense of responsibility to your training. But, in my case, it does not. My 17th week has left me feeling a little empty and lost. As I’d imagine a pregnant woman would still faintly feel like their baby is inside of them, I still get the urge to calculate splits and plan out nutrition. As I navigate this new season of training, I am still experimenting with quick, nutritious, fool-proof recipes to get me through my 17th week and beyond.

Yield: 10 Bars Ingredients

1 cup oats
1 cup almonds or cashews
1/2 cup almond butter or cashew butter
1 scoop protein powder
¼ cup cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla
¼ cup maple syrup
2 tbsp chia seeds
6 tbsp milk
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1 cup dried cherries

Instructions

Add oats, nuts, protein powder, cocoa powder, chia seeds, and salt to a food processor and pulse until crumbly.
Add nut butter, vanilla, maple syrup, and milk and pulse until mixed.
Fold in chocolate chips and dried cherries.
Line a brownie pan with parchment paper for thinner bars or a bread loaf pan for thicker bars and press the mixture firmly in.
Put the pan in the fridge for 30 minutes before cutting and eating.

Nutrition Information

350 calories
42 g carbohydrates
11 g protein
16 g fat

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Chocolate Cherry Oat Bars

Chocolate Cherry Oat Bars