Myrna Bars

Serves: various (1 pan)

Preparation Time: About 35 minutes

Cooking Time: 50 minutes

TRYING to make healthy food choices for yourself can be challenging enough, but getting your kids to do the same can sometimes seem impossible. Myrna Bars are a mother's attempt to pack as many functional food components as possible into two square inches of something that kids will actually enjoy eating. What started out as a snack has turned into a community philanthropic venture providing revenue for a local homeless shelter and local YMCA branches.

Ingredients

1 cup chopped broccoli stalks (from one head of broccoli)
2 bananas
1 cup chopped carrots
2 medium unpeeled apples, cored and diced
1/3 cup filtered water
1 tsp salt
1 cup ground golden flax seeds (ground into flax flour)
1 medium sweet potato (cooked in microwave) with skin removed
1 cup honey
2 Tbsp cinnamon
1 cup soynut butter with excess fat drained away
3 cups old fashioned oats
2 cups spelt flour
1/2 cup walnuts (optional)
1/2 cup unsweetened grated coconut (optional)

Directions

1. Blend together and mix well (2-3 minutes):

Bananas
Water
Cinnamon (yes, really use 2 Tablespoons!)
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup honey
All but 2 Tbsp of the ground flax seeds

2. Blend in the cooked sweet potato.
3. Add the broccoli and carrots and mix another minute or so.
4. Add the oats and spelt flour and mix well.
5. Add apples and mix well again.
6. Pat mixture into 14" x 17" pan
7. Bake 50 minutes at 350 degrees.

Icing

1. Mix together the soy butter, 1/4 cup honey and the reserved 2 Tbsp of ground flaxseeds.
2. Spread on top of cooled bar mixture.
3. Sprinkle with coconut and walnuts (optional).