Chewy Coconut Bars

Something a bit healthier for a recipe to share today.
This is my adaptation of a recipe found in Veggie Life's Summer 2006 edition.
The recipe in the magazine had more sugar than I wanted to use and lacked what to me is an important ingredient to use when there is coconut involved....CHOCOLATE. I also made the recipe a little bigger than theirs, so actually very little has remained the same.
Enjoy, we sure did. The men folk in the family last night had 3 pieces each. It was our Tuesday night family supper and the guys really seemed to like these.

Chewy Coconut Bars.

3/4 cup light Agave Nectar
1 3/4 cups unsweetened finely shredded coconut
1 cup organic light brown sugar
1 cup no trans fat butter substitute. I used Earth Balance.
2 Tablespoons water
1 3/4 cups unbleached white flour
1 3/4 cups quick cooking oatmeal or the old fashioned kind. Doesn't seem to matter which you use.
1/4 cup of organic chocolate 70% cocoa or more
1/4 cup of chopped walnuts or pecans.

Preheat the oven to 350
9X13 inch pan
The original recipe suggested you should line the pan with parchment. I didn't do that, but made sure to not over cook this recipe as I think it would burn on the bottom. I may even bake it at 325 next time.

Mix the coconut with the agave nectar and let it set a bit to plump and soften the coconut.

In a mixing bowl cream brown sugar and "butter" until fluffy. Add 2 T water. Mix then add the flour and the oatmeal. This will be a bit crumbly, but be able to stick together if pressed together with your hands.

Press about 2/3 of this mixture into the pan, then layer in the coconut, choc chips or broken pieces of chocolate along with the nuts.
Sprinkle on the remaining oatmeal mix and press lightly. Bake for 30 minutes.

Let pan cool on a rack before cutting this delight into squares. I suppose it would keep well, but its never lasted more than 24 hours in this house for me to know.

Must share something about the photo..... the pitcher, 50 cents at Goodwills half off sale yesterday and the napkins, freshly washed and dried in the photo but they were 50 cents for 4 at Goodwill as well. Love those 50% sales once a month. The glass contains Vanilla Almond Milk which I just love.