Pineapple Carrot Cake Meal Bars

In my never ending quest for protein and recent quest for weight loss I've been experimenting with meal replacement bars.  I really wanted something made with real food that included all the food groups.  This recipe is inspired by a lentil cookie recipe from foodnetwork.com and it is Chiquita and Mommy approved!

Ingredients:
2/3 cups lentils
2 cups water
2 cinnamon sticks (or 2 tsp ground cinnamon)

2 large carrots
6 oz pineapple juice
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup rolled oats.

1 cup dried fruit (craisins, raisins, or any other dried fruit in small chunks)

Let the first three ingredients cook either in a pan on low heat or in a crock pot until the lentils are nice and soft.  Remove the cinnamon sticks and let cool.

Throw the lentils and the next 7 ingredients into a food processor and blend very well.  Add flour and oats and blend just until well mixed.  Stir in the dried fruit.

Pour the mixture into a greased 9" x 13" pan (nonstick spray works fine) and bake on 375 for about 30 minutes.  After cooled cut into 16 bars (a pizza cutter works great!).  They will go bad so I recommend refrigerating them unless they'll be eaten in a few days.  With Chiquita I actually call them cranberry cookies because she loves the cranberries so much.