cereal bars

As I’ve mentioned before, I changed my diet habits and am trying to eat well-balanced and healthy. So far, this has been really paying off. I lost about twenty-five pounds already and have no problem continuing this healthy lifestyle (which was always the hard part when I tried dieting in the past).
One of the big advantages are the blogs that offer recipes and healthy alternatives, but I’m also pretty good at inventing recipes myself so far. I’ve also been taking a couple of cooking lessons, organized by the organic food store I’ve been going to recently (its location, close to my office, is pretty convenient). Last week, I tried my hand at these delicious cereal bars, together with my friend Céline (whom I’ve met on Twitter, no less).
I tell you: these are easy as pie and are so delicious!

Cereal bars
5 cups of oats – 1 cup of sesame – 1 cup of sunflower seeds – 1 cup of coconut flakes – 1 cup of pumpkin seeds – 1 cup of almonds (roughly chopped) – 1 cup of oil (either sesame or sunflower oil will work) – 1 cup of rice syrup (I used 1/2 cup of rice syrup and 1/2 cup of agave syrup, but I think maple syrup would work equally well)

Preheat your oven to 150° Celcius.
Mix all ingredients, except for the syrup. Once all ingredients are mixed, add the syrup.
Put a sheet of baking paper on a baking plate and divide the mixture onto the plate.
Bake the crunch for about 15 minutes. Now this is the tricky part: bake the crunch for another 15 minutes, while keeping an eye on it every 5 minutes until it is golden brown and time to get it out of the oven.
At this point, the crunch will still be soft, so it’s best you divide the crunch into bars while it is still hot. Leave to cool completely.

See, I told you, easy as pie! Enjoy!