Almond Coconut Bars

This is my favorite recipe I've found so far for the Candida diet! I found it on The Candida Diaries! I made them to take on our vacation to Florida and I kept them in the ice chest. They lasted me the week! I changed just a little from this recipe and I have noted my changes below the recipe.

Amy is the author of Candida Diaries and this is her recipe:

"These no bake, high-protein, high-fiber bars are based upon Melissa Diane Smith’s recipe for Amaretto Protein Bars in her book ‘Going Against the Grain’ and are easy to make.  Roasted cocao nibs add extra chocolately flavor without the sugar. These make a great snack, a healthy dessert or a breakfast on the go!
Ingredients:
2 cups raw almonds
1/2 cup flax meal (flax seeds ground in coffee/spice grinder)
1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup unsalted almond butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup coconut oil
stevia to taste
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup cocao nibs

 Procedure:
Place almonds, flax meal, shredded coconut, almond butter and salt in a food processor and pulse to combine.  No need to pulverize everything, some big almond pieces add texture and crunch!
In a small sauce pan, melt the coconut oil over very low heat.
Remove the liquid coconut oil from stove and stir stevia, and vanilla into the oil.
Add the coconut oil mixture to the food processor and pulse until the ingredients form a coarse paste.
Press the mixture into an 8 x 8 glass baking dish
Chill in refrigerator for 1 hour, until mixture hardens.
Remove from refrigerator, cut into bars and serve or store.  These keep well in the freezer or refrigerator."

What I have changed:

I can't have Stevia yet, so I just didn't include that in the recipe. I used sea salt and make sure your vanilla is alcohol free. I found some made with glycerin on amazon.com. I also didn't have any cocao nibs at the time, which I have now ordered from amazon as well. But instead of cocao nibs I used 100% cocoa bakers chocolate. I just chopped it up to measure it before adding it to the food processor  with the almonds, etc. Amy mentioned that she added the cocao nibs in at the very end so they didn't get chopped up to much.  I also shaved some of the baker's cacao on top of the bars and added some shredded coconut on the top as well before putting it in the fridge. I love these bars! Make sure to drink plenty of water with these because the flax in it soaks up all your water. At first I didn't drink enough and I got a stomach ache, so soon as I drank some more water, it went away! Thanks to Amy for a fabulous recipe!