Gluten-free Trail Mix Granola Bars

Sweet, salty, packed with protein, and totally delicious, that’s what these gluten-free trail mix granola bars are! These bars have a totally addicting crunchy and soft texture, plus the ingredients are nutritious and wholesome! Trail mix granola bars are super easy to make, require no baking, and are the perfect on-the-go snack or make a great hit-the-trails granola bar. I love making these allergy friendly bars that are like having a trail mix in a granola bar form!

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Pioneer Recipe

I made this gluten-free trail mix granola bar recipe with the modern pioneer in mind. I wanted something that was simple, delicious, wholesome, and easy to pack. Whether it be for a hiking trip, a day trip, back to school or work, or a midday power snack, I wanted a homemade granola bar that was both delicious and nutritious. These bars hit the spot!

I based these bars off of a trail mix/granola type mixture. The ingredients are very versatile and you can add, subtract, or substitute in certain ingredients to make your own customized trail mix granola bar. Besides that fact that these bars contain peanuts, they are otherwise very allergy friendly. Gluten-free trail mix granola bars are…

• gluten-free
• tree nut free
• dairy-free
• egg free
• naturally sweetened
• corn free

They are also no-bake! Which makes them the perfect summer snack recipe that doesn’t require firing up the oven when it’s 90° out! You will have to toast some of the ingredients, but that can be done ahead of time and you can easily do that in the mornings when it’s cooler out.

For another no-bake delicious snack bar, make sure you check out these No-Bake Peanut Butter Protein Bars. They are a family favorite!

Packed with Protein

Aside from making these bars like a trail mix in a bar form, I also wanted to make sure there was plenty of protein in these bars. Protein is important when you’re active and will give you energy.

The main ingredients in these bars that provide protein are the peanut-based ingredients and the quinoa. However, many of the other ingredients also contribute to the protein content! Check out the protein content of some of the ingredients!

• Whole Oats (100g)- 16.9g
• Sunflower Seeds (1 oz.)– 5.9g
• Quinoa (1 c.)– 24g
• Peanuts (1 oz.)– 6.9g
• Peanut Butter (1 c.)– 57.3g

As you can see, the ingredients in these bars are packed with protein! That’s why they make a great energy snack for camping, hiking, backpacking, or other high-energy activities. They also work great as an energy booster for busy days! Combine their high protein content with the other nutritious qualities of the ingredients, and you have a super-food granola bar!

For the Trail

I was initially trying to make a homemade, no-bake granola bar that was easy to take with me on hiking or camping trips. After making these bars, I think they would totally work, with just a few adaptions.

Once the bars are made and allowed to set-up, if left at room temperature, they can be a little sticky. This can be a problem if you want to take them on a trip where you don’t have a way of keeping them cool. However, I came up with a couple of solutions!

Travel Storage

One solution would be to put them in a silicon reusable snack bag. The snack bag will keep them from getting too squished and is a great eco-friendly way to transport your snacks. The granola bar will still be soft when you go to eat it, but the taste will be just the same!

You can also wrap the granola bar in parchment paper. Make a ‘granola bar wrapper’ out of parchment paper to keep the trail mix bar contained and safely wrapped up.

Alternatively, you could leave out the 1/4 cup of maple syrup in these granola bars. I found that they were plenty sweet to begin with, so if you left out a 1/4 cup of the sugar, you would still have a very sweet and delicious granola bar. Leaving out the maple syrup will help these bars firm up a little more when left at room temperature.

Looking for another trail friendly snack bar? Check out these delicious Nut Free Trail Bars!

Non-Travel Storage

If you aren’t making these bars for travel purposes or for hiking, then you have a few other storage options open for consideration. Personally, I like the keep my trail mix granola bars in the fridge. It keeps them firm and I liked the chilled taste and texture of them when they are in the fridge. These bars also freeze well. You can unthaw them in the fridge and have a quick, high-protein snack all ready!

Recipe Tips

No-bake granola bars are generally pretty easy recipes to follow, and these trail mix bars are no exception! There are a few tips that I thought might be helpful for when you are making these for the first time though, especially since some of the ingredients need to be roasted.

• I roasted all my ingredients at the same time, however, due to the different sizes, my shredded coconut got a little more toasted than probably necessary. Alternatively, you can roast the shredded coconut separately and the peanuts, quinoa, and sunflower seeds altogether.
• If your quinoa is not already pre-washed, make sure you wash it before roasting it.
• When you are heating up the sugar and peanut butter mixture, only heat it up enough for all the ingredients to be combined. Minimally heating the mixture ensures that the honey still retains its nutritious qualities.
• The roasted peanuts, coconut, quinoa, and sunflower seed mixture really fills up the food processor, so you may consider grinding the mixture in two batches.
• If the peanuts you use are unsalted, you will want to add additional salt to the recipe.
• Lining a 9×13 baking pan with parchment for the bars makes for easy clean-up!
• Putting the bars in the fridge makes them set-up faster.

Recipe Substitutions

I mentioned earlier that these gluten-free trail mix granola bars have very versatile ingredients. Since they are based off of a trail mix type mixture, I wanted to provide you with a few ingredient substitutions you could try.

• Peanuts- any soft tree nut of your choice
• Sunflower Seeds- pumpkin seeds
• Quinoa- millet
• Shredded Coconut- flakes of coconut, flaxseeds
• Peanut Butter- any nut or seed butter of your choice
• Maple Syrup– more honey

You can even add in some additional ingredients like dried fruit or chocolate chips!

*Note: I used white quinoa in my bars. If you use any other color quinoa the bars will have a slightly different taste.

Delicious, nutritious, customizable, and easy, these gluten-free trail mix granola bars can’t get much better than that! I love making these bars and putting some in the freezer to have on hand as a high-energy, quick and easy snack!

Where to Find the Ingredients

• Feridies peanuts
• Thrive Market organic sunflower seeds
• Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free rolled oats
• Anthony’s organic white quinoa
• Thrive Market organic shredded coconut
• Simply Organic vanilla extract
• Supplies: Cuisinart food processor, 9×13 glass baking dish, parchment paper

Gluten-free trail mix granola bars are a fun and easy recipe to make! They have the perfect flavor combination of sweet and salty and they are packed with protein-rich ingredients. I love that these granola bars are high energy and that I can pack them on camping and hiking trips. They are the perfect recipe for the modern pioneer who is trying to eat healthy and be sustainable!

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by Alexa