I am on a mission to start making items that I usually purchase pre-packaged. I often eat all natural energy bars, such as the ones Odwalla makes. While I was at Integrative Nutrition someone gave me this recipe for homemade energy bars and I decided to revisit it and share it with you. So here is my recipe for Super Energy Bars.
This is less of a recipe and more of a concept. You need to make a glue of some sort to stick together all of the super ingredients. I chose to use Coconut Oil, Peanut Butter and Agave Syrup (you could just as easily use other oils and other nut butters). Coconut Oil is perfect because of its low melting point. Solid Coconut Oil begins to get weepy at only 90 degrees faranheit. I melted these ingredients in a double boiler.
After the ingredients melted, I added four tablespoons of raw Cacao (pure unadulterated chocolate!) I mixed it together and took it right off the burner because I wanted the integrity of the Cacao to remain. Too much cooking will break down all of its powerful antioxidants.
I chose to use Almonds, Dried Cranberries and Oats for these bars. The combinations of dry ingredients you could use are endless. These are my favorites...I may try it again later in the week with Dried Cherries. I placed these in pyrex bowl and went to retrieve the "glue."
I then added the "glue" to the dry ingredients and mixed everything together well. I took some tastes of the mixture and was aware that these energy bars were not going to last very long.
After mixing together, I pressed the mixture into a pan and covered it with aluminum foil. These were in the freezer for an hour or less. They were solid and able to eat them like energy bars after chilling out in the freezer. These need to be stored in the freezer so that they remain solid. These may not be the best energy bar to bring on a 3 day backpacking trip...but perfect for grabbing when you get home from a run or from work.
Ry Chi and Fawn came over on Saturday and we ate almost the entire pan they were so good. I was able to salvage only one small piece so that I could share a picture of the finished product with you.
Super Energy Bars
1/2 cup of Coconut Oil
1 cup Peanut Butter
1-2 tablespoons Agave Nectar
4 tablespoons Raw Cacao
1 cup Slivered Almonds
1 cup Dried Cranberries
3/4 cup Oats
Melt the first three ingredients in a double boiler. Add Raw Cacao and Agave Nectar after melting is complete. Transfer this into a bowl with the bottom three ingredients and mix together well. Press into a pan and cover with aluminum foil. Place in the the freezer for an hour or less.
Stay Positive,
Matthew
coming up next...homemade vegetable broth!
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