A review: Paleo Pumpkin Bars (Clean Eats the Zoo)

Paleo Pumpkin Bars Review

Happy Fall, ya’ll! The weather has cooled considerably here even in just the last two days which for me means I can really get into the swing of my favorite season. For me that means trips to pumpkin patches with my dog-child and Friends With Kids, apple picking in beautiful upstate NY, scarves, jeans, sweater coats, reds and gold touches in my decor and pumpkins everywhere and in EVERYTHING. So now that I’ve decorated and my house smells downright yummy, it was the perfect time to add some pumpkin action and I chose to do it with these Pumpkin Bars from the family at CleanEatstheZoo.com.  Seriously, this family is an inspiration in a lot of ways which you can read about here.

Now full disclosure: I don’t claim to subscribe to any particular “diet”. Instead, I eat to prevent spikes in my blood sugar and blood pressure since type 2 diabetes and hypertension runs in my family. My nutrition goal is also to preserve my hard earned muscle mass, keep excess fat at bay and maintain my energy levels for this crazy schedule I have. Sometimes this leads to Paleo friendly diet  because nothing saps my energy more than grain based carbohydrates but I also try to limit my intake of animal fat and have been know to love my fat-free Greek yogurt which Paleo is not a fan of. If anything, I believe in clean, wholesome eating using foods found in nature and not labs. But enough about me, let’s chat about these pumpkin bars!

I was tempted to improvise a few times but baking is a science and well, I’m not a good enough cook or baker to get cocky. You have to spend the dough to make the (non) dough for these bars but you can find some savings here.

Review: 5 Forks Up! So delicious and filling.

The crust was the most troubling part for worry worts like me because it doesn’t cling together the way grain based doughs do. Remember that almond meal or flour is nothing more than very finely ground almonds. When I tried to press mine together before baking it seemed crumbly at first but all I did was add another couple TBSP of coconut oil and it was fine. A long setting time is true for all grain-free flours, by the way so don’t skip that part ( this recipe called for leaving it to cool for quite some time after baking) and don’t fret.