Eat Your Heart Out LARA – Homemade Energy Bars

You know that feeling you get when you see something so simple, so ingenious and it’s making someone a ton of money? When you say to yourself, “I can totally do that” and then you come back to reality, where laziness and apathy override any attempts at creativity and you say to yourself, “nah, I can just buy that.” 

I feel that way about most energy bars, particularly the ones sold at natural food stores. Those two ounce whole food bars are utter gold mines and I always feel resentful that I am paying for a few ingredients blended up, extruded out and beautifully packaged when I could totally make these at home and save a chunk of change. For years, I have been saying this about my favorite whole food snack, the Larabar.

The good folks at Larabar definitely know what they’re doing. Although their product line has expanded over the years, the simplest bar they make is their flagship line which boasts that each flavor has no more than nine ingredients and are little more than unsweetened fruits, nuts and spices. There are nearly 20 flavors to choose from, all of which are delicious configurations of these three ingredients – nuts, fruits and spices.

I have been convincing myself that I should make an attempt at homemade Larabars (or something close to them) for a long time but I always talk myself out of it, citing how long it would take and how many ingredients it would require. But a funny thing happened last night. Rather than making a batch of Paleo Bacon Brownies (which I do hope to get on sooner rather than later) Dan suggested that we make something out of the dates and coconut overloading our pantry. In a moment of weakness, I finally succumbed to the homemade energy bar.

I haven’t come across any recipes in my own cookbook collection for something close to an energy bar, so I did a quick internet search for “date paleo bar” and had over 2 million hits. Sheesh. Although not always the best approach to internet queries, I went with the first page on the list and it was perfect!  Thanks, Turtlewoman, for creating this great recipe. I modified it slightly, here’s the recipe we used:

1/3 cup raw cacao (or you can use regular cocoa powder)

1 1/2 cups raw, pitted Medjool dates

1/3 cup raw ground flax seed

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup raw almonds (soaked and dehydrated work too)

1/2 cup raw walnuts (soaked and dehydrated work too)

1/2 cup raw coconut shavings

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons raw, expeller pressed coconut oil

1/8 teaspoon sea salt (optional)

The original recipe called for dried fruit, such as Goji berries, cranberries or cherries but I swapped those out for coconut. I was going more for a chocolate coconut energy bar kind of a thing.

For this recipe, I used my food processor and also used the dry grain container on my Vitamix to grind the flax seeds into flax meal.

Flax seeds are interesting. If you eat them whole, you will barely get any nutritional benefit. The ol’, they went right through me routine. If you buy pre-packaged flax seed meal and expose it to air or light, it will become rancid and again, you will not benefit very much from that. My solution is to buy whole flax seeds and grind them up just before you use them. Even a tiny food processor will grind these fickle little seeds up for you. If you’re going to eat flax seeds, you might as well make it worth your while.

Steps one through three! Put the pitted dates into your food processor fitted with the s-blade attachment. If they are a little hard, I would add a tablespoon of warm water. Blend until a thick paste forms. Add chocolate, ground flax seeds, vanilla, cinnamon, coconut oil and salt. Pulse to blend thoroughly. Finally add the nuts and coconut. Pulse mixture until the nuts and coconut are to the size you desire. It should look something like this:

Pour mixture onto a wax paper lined pan. Press mixture down with a wooden spoon or spatula until you have a rectangle shape about 1/2 inch thick. Another option is to just ditch this “bar” shape and roll out little spheres. I created little lines with a knife so I could cut equal sized bars. Once the loaf is the size and shape you are looking for, transfer to the fridge or freezer to cool until firm.

Once firm, you can remove and slice up your energy bars. This made about 6 bars, weighing in about 2.5 ounces each. Store in an airtight container in your fridge. Keep each layer separated by a layer of wax paper to prevent sticking.

Boom! Energy Bars. These things are AMAZING and seriously taste just like the real deal, even better! This is closest to the Chocolate Coconut Chew bar but tastes so much better with the addition of a little sea salt to the mix. Since these also have flax seed meal, coconut and coconut oil, there are a lot of really good fats in these homemade energy bars. Not to mention cinnamon which helps promote circulation and raw cacao which has a little caffeine boost. I am a jerk for not attempting these sooner.

These whole food energy bars are also raw, vegan, gluten-free, paleo and bottom line.. super tasty! They do have a base of dates, so there’s a fair amount of sugar in these suckers but at least you get plenty of dietary fiber along for the ride. This recipe is a great basic guideline for tons of other flavor combinations. Let your imagination run wild!

I can’t believe how long I’ve been putting this off. This was REALLY easy, and I don’t mean like making Shrimp Stock-easy. This is like 10 ingredients, 10 minutes, really rewarding snack-easy.

Listen to yourself this time, you can totally do this!

Two Ingredient Homemade Almond Butter

Yes, it can be done! Learn how to make almond butter at home and save TONS of money.

For years, I have been buying organic, raw almond butter and spending an absolute fortune doing so. The “raw” organic almond butter can go for $18.00 (and higher) for a 16 ounce jar. Even the conventional, roasted almond butter can range from $9.00 to $15.00 a jar! For a pantry staple that should consist of nothing more than nuts, and possibly salt, it’s crazy expensive.

What’s worse is that in many jars of almond butter, there are some weird and unnecessary ingredients like sugar (in its many forms), canola oil, palm fruit oil and soy protein. This just baffles the mind. Suckers, like me, who have been buying “raw” almond butter likely think that it’s the healthiest kind of almond butter. What’s more natural than raw, organic almonds? Well, unless you are buying this so-called raw almond butter from Italy, Spain or directly from the farm, you’ll be surprised to know that the raw almonds used have been pasteurized through steam heat (that doesn’t sound raw) or propylene oxide (WTF).

Since 2007, it is illegal to sell and manufacture truly raw almonds in North America with a few exceptions. Even if you don’t care about raw almond politics (and I’m sure not many people do), it should upset you that food manufactures are allowed to market their almond butter as raw even when the almonds originate from the good ol’ US of A. Plus, getting duped into spending twice as much for this pseudo-raw almond butter just ticks me off.

Fortunately, I no longer have to be a slave to store-bought almond butter and neither do you! Even my friends who buy conventional almond butter can save money (and impress their friends) by making it at home! Once again, my favorite cookbook, Nourishing Traditions, came to the rescue. I used the Nourishing Traditions nut butter recipe as a guide but wanted even fewer ingredients in my homemade almond butter.

Molly Chester, a fellow Traditional Foods lover, has a great blog post on how to make homemade soaked almond butter on her blog Organic Spark. This recipe is so simple, and requires only a few ingredients and a food processor. I slightly modified her original recipe to include only almonds and salt. For 2 cups of the tastiest almond butter you’ve ever had you’ll need the following:

1 pound (soaked and dehydrated) almonds

sea salt to taste

First thing’s first, find the best almonds you can! There are many great truly raw almond purveyors online. You can buy directly from almond farmers in California or importers from Italy or Spain. Generally, if you buy five pounds or more, you’ll get a price break. If you aren’t worried about sourcing raw almonds, my suggestion would be to go to your local bulk food store or co-op and get dry roasted almonds, either organic or conventionally grown.

My preference when eating nuts and seeds is to soak and dehydrate them. Many proponents of the raw food movement also see the benefit of soaking, sprouting and dehydrating (in some instances) nuts and seeds. Soaking almonds, and other nuts and seeds helps to break down the enzyme inhibitors and allows for easier digestion, and more nutrient absorption. If you’re interested in learning more about the benefits of traditional soaking practices, take a quick look here. Even if you don’t plan on making a habit of soaking and dehydrating nuts and seeds, I’d encourage you to give it a try once so you can taste the difference. Walnuts and almonds have the most drastic flavor improvement through this method. Sweeter and far less bitter!

Here’s a how-to gallery on soaking and dehydrating raw almonds. If you are starting with dry-roasted almonds or prefer not to soak the almonds before processing, you can move on to the next step.

Add one pound of raw almonds to a large bowl.

Cover the almonds with filtered water.

Add a tablespoon of sea salt.

Stir. Cover with a cloth and let soak at least seven hours or overnight on your counter.

Rinse your almonds and dehydrate at 118 degrees until dry, up to twenty four hours or more. You can also put in a warm oven (at the lowest setting) for twelve to twenty four hours. Make sure your almonds are COMPLETELY dried and cool before processing. The crunchier the almond, the better your almond butter will turn out.

Now that you have some soaked and dehydrated almonds to work with, the rest is a breeze! The following steps are the same whether you use soaked and dehydrated nuts or dry roasted nuts.

Put the S-blade on your food processor.

I suggest making this in two batches. Put half of the cooled almonds in the food processor.

This image is with the full one pound of almonds. I wouldn’t recommend doing that. The almonds should actually come about half way up the center blade shaft.

After a few seconds, your almonds will look like this.

After about two minutes, you’ll have something that looks like this.

A few minutes later, the almonds will begin to form a paste. You can add salt at this stage and scrape down the sides.

Around four or five minutes, you’ll have a ball of almond butter rolling around the food processor. Once the ball “falls apart” you will be left with perfectly blended almond butter.

Here’s the final product! Put in a glass jar with a tight fitting lid and store in the refrigerator.

Boom, almond butter bitches! This stuff is so good and incredibly good for you, particularly if you opt for the soaking method. If you find that your almond butter is too dry (remember to wait at least 5 minutes to see if it’ll come together first), then you can add a healthy fat like unrefined coconut oil to the food processor to help get things moving. Any additional ingredients will change the flavor slightly, so keep that in mind. Adding coconut oil will also make the almond butter much harder in the refrigerator. The almond butter should last a few months in the fridge but it’ll be gone well before then.

You can use this recipe as a guideline for any other nut butter your heart desires. The same is true for the soaking method. (Cashews are the exception to the rule, don’t soak those babies too long or you’ll get some gelatinous, light grey sludge.) Get creative and try out homemade walnut butter, cashew butter or even homemade peanut butter. Why not?

Save some money, impress your friends and get ready to become an almond butter addict. Be warned though, once you start making your own, there’s no turning back!

One final note… how did I write an entire blog post without one nut pun or middle school caliber joke? I must be getting rusty.