The fun and festive highball post is a tough one to follow, but I am very excited about this energy bar post….so here goes… (and the highball post isn’t going anywhere except a little further down on the page).

I’ve been working on creating the perfect energy bar for some time now. I’ve sorted through dozens of recipes and experimented on my own. I’ve made bars that are too chalky, too crumbly, too sticky, and too blah… until this past weekend that is! These bars are decadent tasting, healthy, and (the kicker) I made them in like 5 minutes. 

These bars mimic the infamous Lara Bar that you see in the “bar” aisle of the grocery store.  If you are like me you stand in that aisle, staring at the enormous selection, completely overwhelmed, and walk out with nothing.  That aisle can be daunting. There are so many choices, not to mention the price of some of those puppies (a bar for $2.50 -really?).  This recipe promises to free you of the “bar” aisle all together.  You will smugly walk past that aisle, knowing your homemade bars are far superior and far less expensive than anything they can possible stock at the grocery store.

This recipe is essentially walnuts and dates – that’s it.  The add ins make it fun and you can modify based on what you have on hand. I listed many options below. Bring extra for friends as they will quickly become a hot commodity.

Ingredients

1 cup walnuts
1 1/2 cups pitted dates
1 tsp pure vanilla
4 Tbsp Dutch oven cocoa powder
Pinch of salt
Optional: chocolate chips, unsweetened coconut

Method

Blend all ingredients except any optional ingredients, in a food processor. Form into bars (I pressed into 8×8 inch square pan in order to get them to form and then cut into rectangles). If the bars are too crumbly coming out of the food processor, add a few more dates. Okay, how easy is that?

Basic Formula

1 cup nuts
1 1/2 cups dried fruit (dates work best in my opinion)
1 tsp flavoring
Pinch of salt
1 cup optional add ins

Flavor Options

Apple Pie (almonds, walnuts, dates, dried raisins and apples, cinnamon)
Banana Bread (almonds, dates, dried bananas)
Cappuccino (almonds, cashews, dates, coffee beans, scraped vanilla bean)
Coconut Cream (almonds, cashews, dates, shredded coconut, 2 Tbsp coconut oil)
Ginger Snap (almonds, pecans, dates, 2 Tbsp fresh ginger, 1 Tbsp mixed cinnamon and cloves)
Lemon (almonds, cashews, dates, zest and juice of 1 lemon)
Peanut Butter & Jelly (peanuts, dates, dried cherries)
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip (peanuts, dates, chocolate chips)

Bring It!

Wrap in plastic wrap and throw them in your backpack for any outdoor activity you are planning. Or, throw them in the refrigerator for whenever you need to grab something quick.