Chickpea Granola Bars

I got this recipe from the No Meat Athlete.  It is a great resource for recipes that work!  The one tip I suggest is to place the sheet pan in the refrigerator uncovered so that the bars can dry out a bit.  This way it is easier to cut them into bars.  I also tripled the recipes so you can fill a whole large sheet pan to make a lot of bars.  Enjoy!

Ingredients
3 cans chickpeas (rinsed and drained)
2 Tbsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp sugar
4 1/2 cup oatmeal
3 cup whole grain brown rice cereal
3 cup dried fruit (I used Sunmaid’s variety pack of “Fruit bits”)
3/4 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup honey
9 Tbs canola oil,
3 Tbs ground flax seed

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Mix ground flax seed with 3/4 cup warm water, set aside to thicken.  Toss chickpeas in sugar and cinnamon.  Bake 10 min, stir in the pan, and then 10 min more.  Add oatmeal to the pan and bake 5 min.  Stir together the peanut butter, honey, canola oil, and flax paste.  Combine chickpeas, oatmeal, cereal & dried fruits.  Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and stir to combine.  Press mixture into large greased cookie sheet.  Really PRESS and PACK IN the mixture as hard as you can.  Refrigerate until firm, then cut into bars.