Friday, December 17, 2010

Nutrient Dense Snack Bar


Larabars are a great snack for you if you want a nutrient-dense treat without all the chemicals and preservatives. Unfortunately, they can hurt your pocketbook if they are a habit. Suffice it to say that they can be habitual. My youngest loves them and they are good for him, so I find it hard to deny him of one of the few "treats" he can have. He needs the protein and Omega vitamins to balance the chemicals in his brain and he craves the sweet taste of the antioxidant rich fruits. These bars are quite easy to make, particularly if you create the raw version I have outlined below.

Energy Bar (lara bar clone)
1/4 cup raisins(or dried apricots)
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup cashews, walnuts or almonds or combination of them
1 T raw, organic coconut oil
1/2 to 1 T raw honey
1 T flax seed
Combine all the ingredients in a food processor. I do this in my mini food processor, which is much easier to clean afterwards. Combine until nuts are finely chopped and ingredients are binding together(they will clump together in the food processor). Spoon out onto a sheet of waxed paper. Press flat into a small rectangle about 1/4 inch thick. I pop mine into the freezer to slightly harden and then slice it into three equally-sized bars. One bar makes a great snack and is packed full of nutrition. You can vary the recipe in a variety of ways by adding different dried fruits, including coconut or changing the nuts to peanuts, adding goji berries or different seeds and you can also roll the mixture into one-inch balls and roll in carob powder for a dessert-like version. Try this recipe to get an idea of the consistency and then mess around with the combinations and see what you like best.

2 comments:

Raederle said...

I never thought of freezing for a period of time to harden. Clever. I make something like that, I call them "fruit balls." I have a video of how to make them here (although you could figure it out without the video since you're already into this stuff): http://reallyrawraederle.blogspot.com/2010/06/how-to-make-raw-fruit-ball-treats.html

frugalhsmom said...

Thanks for the video link. Its great for visual learners :) Also the tip about figs is helpful. I have eaten a bad one and you certainly don't want to ruin an entire batch of your recipe with one bad fig.