As part of our continuous search for a healthy diet, many of us have stopped and pondered what would make a great and delicious snack. Fruits and vegetables are the primary choices. But what happens when we want more? We turn to homemade energy bars as the best alternative for an in-between meals snack. Here are seven fabulous recipes which you can start making right now.
Ingredients
How to Make Them
Put all the ingredients except the quarter cup dried cherries in your blender or food processor. You need to let the machine work, crumble, and mix the nuts and fruit and you can see they are granulated and have started to stick together. Typically, it should take you about two minutes, give or take one minute. It depends on the type of processor you have and its speed.
Tip – don’t leave the processor working above three minutes. The mixture will go from crumbly to gooey because of the nuts. Add the remaining cherries in the blender and pulsate it two or three times. You want it to chop the cherries just a bit so that there are large chunks.
When you have finished, turn the homemade energy bars mixture onto a baking pan that has rims. Press it flat and as thick as you want. When you’ve reached your desired thickness, gently move a rolling pin on the surface, to even everything out. Place your tray into the freezer and leave it to rest for about an hour.
The last step requires you to cut the sheet into squares, bars or even circles if you’re feeling whimsical. You should store them in the freezer, in a sealed container, preferably not made of plastic, but ceramics or glass.
Ingredients
How to Make Them
The recipe is quite simple. All you need to do is put all the ingredients in the food processor and allow it do its job. Turn it off when they start to stick together. Since this is a no-bake recipe as well as the first one we detailed for you, you can follow the steps outlined there, as far as putting it in a pan and freezing it goes.
Tip – if you don’t want to buy or cannot find almond butter, you can easily make your own at home. Roast the almonds first. You can use them raw, but it will take a lot more time to turn them into butter, so roasting them helps a lot, time-wise. After you cook them, allow them to cool for five minutes, so as to not overheat your food processor.
Pop them in and mash them for about ten minutes. Do not add any more oil. When it’s done, the almond butter should be quite runny.
Ingredients
How to Make Them
Use your food processor and first put in the pumpkin seeds and the water. Blend them until they form a smooth paste. It should take you approximately one minute. Add all your figs as well as the pea protein scoops. Blend them again until they are smooth. Turn the mixture onto a baking sheet, roll it, and place it into the freezer for 35 minutes.
It’s time to work the chocolate. As you may already know, you cannot heat or melt chocolate directly onto an open fire. You need a so-called ‘double boiler’. Place a big pot of water on the fire and heat it up. On top of it, place a glass or ceramic bowl or even another, smaller pan. Put half the chocolate it.
Tip – do not leave the chocolate out of your sight as it melts rapidly and it will burn. Also, make sure to stir continuously.
Once the chocolate has melted, pour it over your spread. Place the sheet back into the freezer to harden. Using the same double boiler, melt the remaining chocolate together with the coconut oil. When they have melted and cooled off a bit, dip your squares or bars in it. Sprinkle with some sea salt and enjoy an immensely delicious and healthy treat.
We say peanut butter and jelly, but you will be using a few replacements, in fact, a lot healthier.
Ingredients
How to Make Them
First, you need to soak the dates in some warm water for 15 minutes or so. Drain them well of all excess moisture. Put them in your food processor or blender along with the cranberries, oats, and peanut butter. You need to let them blend until they are thoroughly combined. As shown above, you need to turn the mixture onto a baking sheet, press it down, roll it, cut it into squares or bars and let it chill in the freezer for 30 minutes.
Store them in your freezer or refrigerator. You can also dip them in chocolate for added flavor.
Ingredients
How to Make Them
Before you can actually begin to make the bars, you need to toast the pecans and oats. Spread them on a baking sheet in one layer flat and bake them in a preheated oven for ten to 15 minutes, until they get fragrant.
Take them out of the oven, cool them for five minutes, and toss them in the blender along with the cinnamon, salt, and dates. Let them process until you get a crumbly mixture with no big chunks in it. Then add the chopped apples and use the pulsating mode to blend everything. There should be no big pieces left.
Continue mixing until you see they start to clump together. A warning here – it might take a while until you see this happening, so don’t give up. You will get there eventually, because of the chemistry of the ingredients.
Turn the mixture onto a large pan. Use a wooden or rubber spatula to flatten it all over the surface of the pan. This step might take a bit as well, but be patient, as it’s paramount. If you flatten the mixture well enough, the bars will come out of the oven evenly roasted.
Bake them in a preheated oven for 20 minutes, cool them down and cut them into bars or squares. You should store them in the fridge, in an air-tight container. They will last longer in the freezer.
Ingredients
How to Make Them
Put the cashews in the food processor and use the pulsing mode until you crumble them. Set them aside. Be careful not to turn them into butter. It’s the apricots’ turn. Put them in the blender and give them a good whirl until they are reduced to crumbles as well. Once you have finished, you can add all the other ingredients on top of the apricots and mix them until you see they are starting to stick to each other.
Pour it all onto a baking sheet and gently press everything down until you get an even layer. Place your pan in the freezer for the next hour. You can them remove it and start cutting away. It will make for eight rectangle bars. Of course, this is not a given. You can cut them in any shape and size you like.
The best part is that, as long as you store them in the fridge in a closed container, they will keep fresh for up to a month. If you can last that long without eating them!
Ingredients
How to Make Them
Use a relatively large mixing bowl, as you will need some room to give all the ingredients a good whirl. Add the quinoa, flax seeds, chia seeds, cinnamon, salt, rolled oats, cardamom, and the almonds. Stir them well with a wooden spoon or a rubber spatula until they are well combined.
Combine the almond butter, brown rice syrup, and honey in a microwave-proof dish, and pop them in for one minute. They just need to soften. The next step asks you to combine the dry ingredients with the wet ones and mix them well. After a few minutes, you will notice they are starting to clump together. You now need to use your hands to knead the mixture, just like you would a dough. Make sure your hands are clean and dry.
When you can see that the mix is firm, it’s time to turn it onto a baking sheet. Even it out using a spatula or a rolling pin, so that you create one single layer, as even as possible. This step is quite an important one, as you need them all to cook at the same time.
Bake them for 15 minutes and cool them off for approximately ten. After you’ve cut them into pieces, wrap then individually using saran wrap and store them in the fridge.
Homemade energy bars, as you can well see from the amazing recipes we’ve detailed above, are chock full of good carbs and dried fruit. This means you can not only eat them as a snack between meals but post-workout as well. Instead of reaching for a processed type of dessert or treat, which is store bought and full of sugar and fats, go for homemade energy bars. You’ll notice the difference in no time!
1/2 cup oats1/2 cup of Bran flakes1/2 cup of Almonds1/2 cup cashews1/2 cup walnutsPut all the nuts in a ziplock bag and crush themRoast the dry fruits for 2-3 minutes on medium heat stir constantlyRoast Oats for 2-3 minutes on medium heat stir continuouslyIn a bowl add 1 tbsp of butter1 tbsp of sugar2 tbsp of honeyMix well to make a fine paste microwave for 1 minuteAdd all the ingredientsAdd 1 tbsp of black raisinsMix in very wellmake sure to clean your handsspread evenly on a sheet of baking parchment paperput in a glass baking dishkeep in the refrigerator for 3 hourswhen cool to the touch remove from refrigerator take out of glass pan and off the baking sheetplace on cutting board and cut with knife into bars
preheat oven to 325set aside your greased parchment paper and place in the baking dish grease parchment paper with vegetable oilget a big mixing bowl to add2 1/2 cups regular oats1/4 cup of sweetened flake coconut loosen up 2 tbsp. brown sugar1 cup worth of toasted walnuts, pecans, dried cherries mini chocolate chips chopped figs and prunesadd the liquid ingredients together in a measuring cup1/3 cup of canola oil1/3 cup of honey1 teaspoon of vanillaMix all the ingredients in the big bowldistribute the honey throughout mixture honey is what holds it all togetherPut all the ingredients into the pan with your handsPress down really hard push into the cornersPlace in the oven after 30 minutes you take it out Let it cool in the panthen you can cut into bars
