Saturday, February 5, 2011

Homemade Energy Bars

What is that?!  My homemade energy bars of course!  I was tinkering around with the idea of making my own because I'd been spending a decent chunk on 'bars' of various sorts each week.  I liked the idea of controlling the ingredients and the size, plus taking the cost down a couple notches. 

If you google the title of this post I'm sure you will find tons of recipes.  I've made these on several occassions using various different ingredients. I was trying to use up some sunflower seeds before their expiration date, so here is the recipe I used this time-

Recipe:

6-8oz dates
1/2 small bag of dried prunes
1c sunflower seeds
1/2c Peanut Butter made with Trader Joe's Peanut Flour
1 heaping tablespoon Maca Powder
1 tablespoon Spirulina
Sprinkle of Cinnamon
1c Maple Cinnamon Butternut Squash (Link previous post)
Water as needed

Don't have one of the weird odd ball ingredients I used?  Doesn't matter.  You don't need it.  I already had spirulina and maca powder on hand because I've been using them as supplements for the last year or so.  Just mix in whatever you want until you get the texture you desire.


Dates are a little hard on the blender because they are tough little buggers.  I blended them first, then added the sunflower seeds.  I didn't want to bite into a chunk of date.
Next up is some Spirulina powder.

The benefits of Spirulina are too many to list, so if you want to learn more, visit the link above in the recipe.  As a side note, even a small bit of this concentrated powder will turn most things a deep shade of green.  :)

The picture below is prior to the Spirulina being added.  I've got the sunflower seeds and peanut butter in there.

Now comes the green color!
I had some delicious roasted butternut squash on hand and I decided it would add a nice sweet taste to my bars, so I mixed some of that in as well.

Here I am adding in the Maca Powder.  Held in one of the awesome containers I got from IKEA.
I like to blend the mixture for quite a while so there aren't any surprise chunks in the bars.

Lastly, you line a pan with some nonstick wrap, then press the mixture in.  You will want to refrigerate it for a while so its easier to cut.


When ready to cut, simply lift out of the pan!  I used a butter knife to cut these.  Oops...I ate one already.

Leave in the pan or slice and wrap individually for quick carrying.

The key to these homemade bars is the texture.  You have to have enough fluid or soft ingredients for your blender to be able to chop everything very finely, but you don't want it so mushy that you don't want to eat it.  After all, who wants a mush bar?

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