Almost Raw Chia Seed Brownies

I am often exploring for new recipes, and I like to pop them up here to give you some healthy options. I was browsing some blogs and recipe sites. After looking at some ingredients, and just knowing what goes well together with my own personal explorations in the kitchen here is what I came up, and I hope you like them.

I really like having bars around for snacks for the kids. The great thing about bars for snacks is that you can put a whole bunch of healthy ingredients into them and the kids don't even know!  Unless of course they were in the kitchen right along side you making them. That's okay too because did you know that children are more likely to eat something that they've made with their own hands? Children enjoy spending time with their parents in the kitchen, its great bonding time, and its an opportunity to teach math, science, history, nutrition, and even the bible without them realizing that they are getting a lesson. I homeschool my children, so I take every opportunity to teach them something new if possible :)

I love raw foods for so many reasons. I opted to make raw bars today because well quite frankly I am low on eggs, and most bar recipes for the oven call for them. Its also important to me to have enzymatic rich foods. You may at this point be saying really, what, could I just have the recipe please, enzy...what? Raw foods are fantastic because they have a rich supply of enzymes. Enzymes are super important. Think of an enzyme as a catalyst for digestion. Our bodies have limited supplies of them. Some are in our saliva. We need enzymes to properly digest our food.

The only place to get enzymes are in living foods. Another word for living foods is raw foods. Enzymes live in living cells. Cells are alive in our foods until we cook them past 118 degrees. In most modern cooking we cook foods at 350 degrees or higher. The nutrition is still in our foods, but the enzymes die. That puts our digestion system in a world of hurt. As I mentioned before our bodies have limited stores of enzymes. Those enzymes are for  other systems in our body to use though. We were designed to get enzymes from our foods for digestion. When we eat cooked foods, our bodies steal from our enzyme stores. Over times when we steal from our bank, our bodies go bankrupted. Then illness starts to set in. So to avoid that illness the key is to integrate as many raw foods as possible.

Here is the recipe:

1/3 Cup Chia Seed (white or black)
1/3 Cup Carob Powder (raw or roasted)
1 1/2-2 Cups Chopped Medjool Dates
1 Tbsp Maple Syrup or Raw Honey
2 Tbsp Organic Unsweetened Dry Shredded Coconut
1/3 Cup Organic Coconut Oil
1 Cup of Raw Almonds (any raw nut would work)

Put everything into the food processor and process well. Take mixture and press with fingers well into a glass 8x8 dish. Place in fridge for about 4 hours. Cut into bars when serving. If you make this in the morning it makes a great after school snack!