Homemade Fruit & Nut Bars

I woke up to an unpleasant surprise this morning - my cupboards were infested with Argentine Ants!  Ah, the joys of living in the woods.  I tore everything off the shelves in an attempt to find the source of their interest.  Ah ha!  The dates.  I opened the box outside and rescued a few handfuls of dates.  The rest were crawling with teeny black pests so I threw them into the compost.

Back inside, I rinsed the remaining dates with hot water.  I figured I should make something with them, but what?  I thought back to the no-bake vegan, raw chocolate cakes I made a few months ago.  The bulk of the dessert was made by blending walnuts into a flour and adding dates for sweetness.

The "dough" reminded me of these awesome "Pure" bars I like so much, so I tweaked my old cake recipe a bit to get homemade fruit & nut bars.

• 1 cup walnuts
• 1 cup cashews
• 1 cup sunflower seeds
• 1 1/2 cups dates 
• 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
• 1/2 cup dried cherries
• 1/2 cup dried blueberries

Mix the walnuts, cashews and sunflower seeds in a blender until you get a chunky powder.  Pour powder into a mixing bowl.  Next, mix the dates in the blender until smooth.  Add date paste to nut flour and mix with your hands.  Add the pumpkin seeds, cherries and blueberries and mix until it forms a dough.  Press dough into a wax paper-lined glass dish.  Stick it in the fridge overnight and cut into squares in the morning.  Enjoy for a quick breakfast or snack!