This may not be exactly what you have in mind, but you might look up the various recipes for Larabars. They are primarily sweetened with dates and are gluten free and vegan. There's often very little to them but dates and nuts. Throw in the other "flavor," e.g., cherries, lemon, coconut, etc., and you basically have a pretty tasty bar, without the butter and sugar that a lot of recipes call for. Or you can just buy Larabars. I wait until they're on sale; 10 for $10 at my local Kroger. Since dates and nuts aren't cheap, I don't know that I could make that at home for much less than that.