Preheat oven to 325℉
In a large mixing bowl add all nuts, fruits and seeds.Pecans, almonds, cashews, coconut, cranberries, pepitas and chia seeds In another mixing bowl, add maple syrup, salt and vanilla extract. Stir a few times to dissolve the salt slightly.
Pour the maple syrup mixture over the nut mixture and stir with the rubber spatula until all ingredients are evenly coated with the syrup mixture.
Prepare a 9"x13" pan by lining with parchment paper. Make sure to press paper in the corners of the bottom and edges of the pan. Using your nail. crease the paper into these creases. Allow the paper to stick up above the top of the pan so you have something to grab onto and pull the nut bars out of the pan to cut.
Scrape your mixture into the prepared pan. With the flat side of the rubber spatula, spread the mixture evenly and then begin to press the mixure firmly into the bottom of the pan. Work from one end of the other. If you have thick spots, press those down to fill in some of the thinner spots.
Once the mixture is even and pressed into the pan, place into the preheated oven. Bake for 14 mintues, rotate the pan and bake for an additional 14 mintues.
Be sure to keep a close eye on the bars, as over baking will cause them to crumble and not be able to be cut into bars.
When the bars are baked, remove them from the oven and let cool atleast 2 hours. You can wrap and allow to cool over night and cut the following day.
Using a very sharp knife, cut into 16 bars. I am able to get 8 across and two from top to bottom, for 16.
Using small squares of waxed paper, wrap each bar so they do not stick together and place in an airtight container or large ziplock bag. If you have a large enough container to place them in a single row high and not stacked, you do not have to individually wrap.
Store for 3 weeks at room temperature or 3 months frozen.