If you have ever shopped for energy bars in a health food store, that too with quality ingredients, you would know how expensive they can be. So why not make your own energy bars with your choice of clean ingredients? Energy bars can come handy as your pre-workout snack, or as a on-the-run breakfast for those busy weekday mornings or as a good after school snack. Here is yet another quicknhealthy energy bar recipe which is vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free and made with no added sugar, flour or oil. You can substitute the nuts with seeds (pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds) if you are allergic to nuts. If you want to reduce the sweetness you could omit the dates and add same amount of apricots or prunes. I have made them with my favorite spices, ginger and cinnamon, but you can try varying the spices, make it your own :-) As always try to use organic ingredients as much as possible.
Ingredients:
- Almonds -1/2 cup (preferably activated)
- Pecans - 1/2 cup
- Dried shredded coconut - 1 cup
- Apricot chopped - 1 1/2 cups
- Dates chopped - 1/2 cup
- Hemp hearts - 1 cup
- Goji berries - 1/2 cup
- Cinnamon powder - 1 tsp
- Ginger powder - 1 tsp
- Himalayan salt - a pinch
Directions:
- Add almonds, pecans to a dry blender or food processor and powder to get almost a meal consistency. Transfer to a bowl.
- Add chopped apricots and dates to the food processor or high speed blender and process till you get a paste-like consistency, transfer to the bowl.
- Add goji berries to food processor/blender and grind coarsely, transfer to the bowl.
- Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl. Mix everything and make sort of a 'dough'.
- Divide the 'dough' into 4 or 5 balls. Place a ball between to parchment paper and roll into 1/4 th inch thick rectangle. Cut into bars of desired sizes. Trim edges and repeat till all 'dough' is finished.
- Preheat oven to a very low temperature (I had mine at the lowest at 170 deg F). Arrange the bars in a silicon lined tray and bake for about 30 minutes.
- Let them cool down completely. Wrap in desired wrappers or just store in airtight container.
- This makes about 12 bars (1.5 inch x 4 inch).
- Enjoy!
