I am thankful for all the input that I received on my recent twitter request for yummy and nutritious larabar and granola bar recipes. Thanks for all the recipes! I wanted to share a collection of the recipes received here today with you all. My purpose in finding a good recipe was to have a good snack bar to have on hand. The hubby in particular was requesting something to give him a little boost occasionally during his long work hours. Here is my version of a good protein bar that we totally love thanks to Katie @ Kitchen Stewardship for her tweaked almond bar! Let me say that again…it is awesome! A great source of protein and a fun way to get those nutritious nuts, seeds and dried fruit into your diet. Great for pregnant mommies too! I simply threw all the ingredients into my Blendtec Blender (my favorite kitchen appliance and functioning food processor at our home) and pulsed it for a few seconds and it turned out beautifully, but you can also use a food processor as described below.
2 cups almonds
1/4 cup flax seeds, chia seeds or pumpkin seeds (ground in a coffee grinder or blender)
1/2 cup dried prunes, dates or raisins (we used prunes!)
½ cup shredded coconut (unsweetened)
½ cup peanut or almond butter
½ cup coconut oil or butter (melted)
1/4 cup honey
2-3 teaspoons vanilla extract
a few squares dark chocolate, less than half a bar needed for thin layer
(optional) – I melted about 1/4 bag of chocolate chips in a small saucepan for the topping
Place almonds, flax meal/seeds, dried fruit, shredded coconut, almond/peanut butter in a food processor. Pulse briefly for about 10 seconds.In a small sauce pan, melt coconut oil over very low heat. Remove coconut oil from stove, stir sweeteners and vanilla into oil. Add coconut oil mixture to food processor and pulse until ingredients form a coarse paste. Press mixture into an 8 x 8 glass baking dish. Chill in refrigerator for 1 hour, until mixture hardens. In a small saucepan, melt chocolate over very low heat, stirring continuously. Spread melted chocolate over bars; return to refrigerator for 30 minutes, until chocolate hardens. Remove from refrigerator, cut into bars and serve. Makes about 12-15 bars. Store in refrigerator or freeze for later enjoyment!
Other Snack Bar Recipes
Granola Bars – (Danielle @ Naturally Knocked Up)
Larabar Recipe – (Clean Eating Online)
Granola Bars (Katie @ Kitchen Stewardship)
Hi,
I tried doing this in my Vitamix and it realized it was too sticky and it made my machine shut off as a overheating precaution. I think it would have worked if I had the dry attachment for doughs. Needless to say it scared me to death since my machine is only 3 months old.
I did end up transferring everything to my food processor in the end, I guess my food processor isn’t strong enough either (old, handmedown).
For anyone looking at add protein, I added a couple scoops of chocolate whey protein and a splash of water to account for the extra dry ingredient.
Thanks,
Rachel
hey there and appreciate you your information –
I’ve undoubtedly acquired anything new from listed here. I did however expertise some technical problems through this web site,
because I experienced to reload the site lots of occasions
preceding to I could get it to load correctly. I ended up curious if your
primary hosting is fine? Not too Im complaining, but sluggish load times occasions will extremely frequently affect your placement on the internet and could damage your quality score if advertising
and advertising with Adwords. Anyway In dem adding
this RSS for my email and can look out for a lot more of
your respective exciting content. Ensure you update this again later on.
.
I have been making your recipe for a number of months now, and everyone who tries them loves them and wants the recipe. I have sent tons of people your link and would also copy the recipe that I had printed out especially for the people my husband works with, but it got annoying pulling out of my recipe book all the time, so I came back to your website to make another copy and save it so I could more easily print it out. I noticed that you changed it, why did you change it?
I noticed that you omitted the salt and increased the honey to 1/4 cup instead of the 1 T and changed some of the choices. I made them again, this time with the changed recipe and I, surprisingly, missed the salt. I would usually cut down a little on the salt anyways, only because I use Himalayan crystal salt and sometimes I would get a stronger taste of salt in some bites, but it helped bring out some of the other flavors that I didn’t taste with the salt completely cut out. I was just curious of why you changed it?
Thank you Lindsay and all of you repliers for the good ideas!
If I have almond flour on hand (which is really just ground almonds) how much should I use? I assume 2 cups of unground almonds is less once ground… Can’t wait to try this!
That’s a good question as I really don’t know. I’ll try measuring it next time.
I love these!! I’ve made them about 5 times already. I went through and figured out the nutritional info (quickly so it’s an approximation) of the bars if they are made exactly as the recipe is and cut into 25 bars. Also, I usually use 4 squares of bakers semi-sweet chocolate (too much I know…).
(per bar when cut into 25):
Calories – 233.8
Fat – 17.8g
Sodium – 29.35mg
Sugar – 7.78g
Protein – 4.69g
Carbs – 13.67
I would like to try to cut back on the sodium and increase the protein content. I’m going to try a batch with less flax, less shredded coconut and less peanut butter as those are the main sources of sodium..I will see what I can get away with. I’m also going to try including some whey isolate for more protein. I will post if it’s successful!!
Thankyou so much for the nutritional breakdown. I also would like to get a higher protein count and am interested in how yours turned out with the whey protein. Thanks!
29.35mg of sodium make these a very low sodium food, as the RDA of sodium is about 2500 mg/day. I plan to replace at least part of the almonds with protein powder. 2 cups of almonds and a half cup of peanut butter seem to put these too high in fat and unbalanced.
I made these yesterday and they are awesome! We’ve been cutting grains, dairy and refined sugars out of our diet and that’s been challenging. These will be perfect to take camping and hiking this weekend! Thanks!
Any chance you know the nutritional info for the bars (or approx.)? Fats, Protein, Sugar, etc.
Do you soak your’ nuts before making these?
Sometimes…
Just for your website. Love it! Love your mission. Can’t wait to spend more time here. I just started a blog, http://www.MommieCan.com. It’s purpose is to encourage Christian moms toward the abundant life Jesus gives. Thanks for being an inspiration and great example of intentional living for Jesus!
And, of course, can’t wait to try these bars:)
I loved this recipe so much, linked back to this recipe in my blog, http://www.dotlessis.blogspot.com Thanks!!
I loved the flavor but my first batch didn’t want to stay together. I doubled the dates and covered them with a thin layer of chocolate chips. We LOVE them! Thanks for the recipe! It’s a keeper!
Hi,
I was wondering if you measure the 1/4 cup of flax seeds before you grind them or the 1/4 cup is the ground flax seed? I just don’t want to put too much in. My Dad once ate too many flaxseeds at one time and had a severe gallbladder attack. My kids will be eating these scrumptious bars, so I want to make sure the measurement is right. Thanks!
I usually measure the whole flax seed before putting it into the processor.
Has anyone priced out how much they spend per batch to make these wonderful bars? I would love to make them weekly!
Can someone provide the nutritional content on these bars, if cut 12-15 bars per batch?
Thank you.
It would depend on your own variations. I use cashews, add rice protein powder and double the coconut oil, and I get 19g protein per bar, depending on how evenly I spread and cut them.
I made this recipe with my homemade almond butter instead of peanut butter, skipped the coconut and chocolate, and used raisins. For 15 bars, my NI for one bar came out to be:
Calories: 231
Carbs: 10
Fat: 19
Protein: 6
Sugar: 5
Sodium: 4
In the future I will cut out the salt since I salt my almond butter a bit. I am also going to try it with less oil to cut back on the fat content as mine seemed very oily. However, these taste amazing!!! I limit myself to one bar a day.
Lorena – how do you make homemade almond butter?
So my brand new blender died on the second batch. Lesson learned. What food processor do you use? (or anyone that makes these on a regular basis).
I use a Blentec total blender for this recipe and it works great!
Oh wow…. way out of my budget! I picked up a Hamilton Beach food processor, and I’m going to test that out once the baby wakes up. Thank goodness the batter is fine!
Have my first batch in the fridge now, and I can’t wait to try them! I used dates, had cashews, so tried that, and added 12 servings of protein powder (followed by another 1/2 cup or so of coconut oil to get it to blend). Thanks for posting this!
Will definitely try this recipe. I love the fact that you are using whole natural foods (with the exception of the chocolate chips). I would experiment with using Cacao powder, coconut oil, and honey for a healthier chocolate topping. As a holistic health coach, I’m always looking for healthy whole food options to recommend to my clients. This recipe is a definite keeper. Thanks so much for sharing!
What about trying this? http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2012/01/15/three-ingredient-chocolate-bars-1/
I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks like a processed chocolate alternative. I’d love your opinion!
Hello there, You’ve done a great job. I will certainly digg it and in my view suggest to my friends. I’m sure they’ll be benefited from this site.
These sound amazing, except that I’m allergic to coconut….it there any substitue for that???
I have been looking for a recipe like this and I have finally found the perfect one. I melted a little bit of coconut oil in to my chocolate too, it gives the chocolate a nice texture. They are delicious, thank you!
These are way too good. Shame on you!!
Okay, so I’m joking, but they did turn out spectacular! Just what I needed as a quick protein snack for nursing. And my little busy bodies love them too.
These are SO delicious!! Only 1 problem….they are VERY high fat/calorie. My sister was kind enough to burst my bubble after I made my 3rd batch and was wondering why my scale seemed to be off, lol. According to the calorie counter on myfitnesspal.com, if you cut the bars into 25 pieces, each bar has 189 cal, 16 g fat and 4 g protein. Ands thats a small piece – I would eat few pieces in a day. Just a warning
I am now feeding them mainly to my skinny boys!
Yes, but this is good fat! Coconut oil is so incredibly nutritious for you. Read more about it on the westonaprice.org site. There is a big difference. I would not worry about it.
I agree that good fats are way better, but those of us that have struggled with our weight our whole life know that a calorie is still a calorie. It sucks but when I cut out natural sugars and tracked my calories the weight really fell off. Even with tracking my calories and eating these yummy treats I couldn’t loose a pound. Everyone is different but I think we can’t say a higher calorie/whole food treat is going to be just fine because it is whole foods. I say this with love and mercy, but if you haven’t ever struggled with weight issues (and are under 30 because age is a big factor) you can’t begin to understand how difficult the process really is.
I would like to try these, but would have to make a couple of substitutions. My daughter is allergic to peanuts and tree nuts. So, I would use Sunbutter instead of peanut butter, but I’m not sure what I would use instead of the almonds. Any suggestions?
Thanks
Linda
You could probably use cashews. I recently substituted them for almonds in a homemade granola recipe, and it worked out great! Sending you blessings in your quest for homemade yumminess!
Linda, it might not be as rich in protein, but you’d really just need 2 cups of bulk. I’d maybe double the Sunbutter, throw in a bunch of pumpkin seeds and maybe even puffed amaranth or rice (I know that’s more processed) just for fun. Adding some sesame seeds are nutritious, hulled ones might work well too… but, maybe don’t pulse as long in the processor.
I didn’t have enough almonds on hand so I used oatmeal for filler, they turned out really good, and probably cut down a little on the fat and calories.
Oats!