How long did you all think I could last without having pumpkin in my recipes here at Nutrition Stripped? I was trying my best to let the month of September and all the buzz around pumpkin spiced lattes to cool down before sharing recipes and fully welcoming the fall season with the beloved pumpkin! Let’s join the crowd and fully embrace fall with autumnal flavors of pumpkin and pumpkin spice in these Pumpkin Spiced Nut & Seed Bars! Oh, and Happy Vegetarian Awareness Month!
Pumpkin is such an amazing ingredient to use in cooking, baking, puddings, dips, etc., it’s very versatile with it’s flavor and texture. These Pumpkin Spiced Nut & Seed Bars are perfect for an on the go snack, a healthy treat, or even for Halloween/holiday parties this season.
These bars not only taste like fall in your mouth, but are also nutrient dense, high in vitamins, healthy fats, fiber, protein and are mineral rich (things most of our diets don’t et enough of out of a snack). I promise I won’t go pumpkin crazy and post every recipe with pumpkin in it, but fair warning it’ll be here for the next couple of months (wink, wink). I’ll go more in detail about why I think pumpkin is so great nutritionally speaking in a future post that highlight pumpkin even more!
Nut allergy // If you have a peanut allergy, simply use almond butter or another nut butter in place of the peanut butter. Also if you’re allergic to any other nut in this mix, swap it out for another nut or more seeds that are more friendly to your body!
- 1 cup almonds, raw and unsalted
- ½ cup pumpkin seeds, raw and unsalted
- ½ cup sunflower seeds, raw and unsalted
- 1/2 cup organic peanut butter
- 1/2 cup rolled oats
- 1/4 cup organic pumpkin puree
- ¼ cup brazil nuts, raw and unsalted
- ¼ cup amaranth (optional)
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 1/4 cup local honey
- 1 Tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- pinch of sea salt to taste
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a saucepan, bring maple syrup, pumpkin puree, and peanut butter to a simmer and immediately take of heat. Stir until this mixture is well combined.
- Combine the nuts and seeds in a separate mixing bowl.
- Pour the liquid mixture over the nuts and seeds and stir until thoroughly coated.
- Using a lined or silicone square edged pan, spread the nut mixture in by pressing with your hands and compacting the mixture into the square pan evenly.
- Bake for 20 minutes.
- Keep an eye on this mixture, every oven setting is different and when toasting nuts and seeds they may burn very quickly!
- Take out of the oven and let cool.
- Keep in an airtight bag/container at room temperature for storing.
Warning // Similar to my Spicy Sweet Nut & Seed Mix… these are addicting! Exercise willpower and self control when eating these, they’re that good.
What are your favorite ways to use pumpkin in the fall season? Share below! Better yet, if you have an idea of a Halloween dish that you’d like to see “made over” into a healthier version, let me know so I can re-create it here!
Now off to enjoy these bars, have a beautiful day everyone!
xo McKel
