The No-Bake Oat Bars That Use Up Pantry Ingredients You Forgot About

It's easy to forget about what's on your shelves when you don't keep your pantry organization on track. Before you go and toss those forgotten ingredients into the compost bin, try our no-bake dates and oats snack bars recipe. 

To make no-bake oat bars, you'll need a handful of ingredients that are probably already in your pantry. These ingredients include Medjool dates, rolled oats, slivered almonds, cacao nibs, almond butter, maple syrup, and ground cinnamon. If you don't have those exact ingredients, you can always be creative and use substitutions. Any dried berries — like cranberries, raisins, or cherries — can replace the Medjool dates, for example. Instead of slivered almonds, you can use any other nuts in your pantry. Chocolate chips can replace cacao nibs. Swap out almond butter with any other nut butter you have. Agave syrup or honey can replace maple syrup. And finally, other spices, like cardamom, can replace ground cinnamon.

The point is to use up the ingredients lurking in the shadows of your pantry. And because our no-bake oat bars recipe is so versatile, you can also mix and match the ingredients. For example, it's fine to use Medjool dates and dried cranberries. Chocolate lovers, feel free to add chocolate chips and cacao nibs. There's really no wrong way to load up these no-bake oat bars.

Once you've gathered all your ingredients, it's time to make these easy no-bake oat bars. First, soften the Medjool dates with boiling water for about 15 minutes. Once the dates are cool enough to touch, remove their pits and chop them into smaller pieces. You can also use a food processor. If you're using dried berries you can skip these steps. Then mix all the dry ingredients — the nuts, oats, dates, and cacao nibs — together in a bowl. In a saucepan, heat up the maple syrup and nut butter, along with the spices, until smooth and well-combined. You can also use the microwave to heat up the wet ingredients. 

Pour this mixture over the bowl of dry ingredients and mix until thoroughly combined. The mixture will come together easily. Then, press the mixture into a greased or parchment-lined baking dish. Alternatively, use flexible silicone molds. Finally, let the bars set in a freezer for about 30 minutes. Leftover bars are best stored in the refrigerator or freezer. And there you have it, delicious no-bake oat bars that you can make at any time and use up forgotten pantry ingredients — an easy way to reduce food waste in the kitchen.