Grain Free Date, Chocolate, & Cashew Snack Bars (Lärabar Style)

5:17 PM Posted by jo

I decided to make some Lärabars today. My seventeen year old son does Track and Field so he is gone between 7:30 am to midnight once a week on track meets. It is quite challenging to make sure that he has enough food with him for the whole day. They only serve junk at the schools, and at the last meet they sold a brown bag of food for 5 dollars. I was horrified when I heard that the bag contained a burger, a candy bar, a soda, and a bag of chips. I often ask my son if the coaches ever talk about nutrition and the importance of eating well in order to perform well in athletics. The answer is no every time I ask him. I find this very sad the children and young adults are expected to perform in athletics when they are fed only junk food.

These bars are really quick and easy to make and they kind of fit into our Paleo Diet since they are grain and dairy free without any added sugar. These are made especially for our active lifestyle doing sports, and they will be great for an endurance athlete like my husband.

I browsed a few sites to get some ideas on how to make them. I came across an article featuring the athlete Greg Parham, and he shared his recipe for his Cavemen Energy Bars which I thought sounded delicious. I also came across a great recipe on the The Inner Gourmet's blog. So I took some ideas from both those recipes and created some really delicious snack bars. Everyone in the family thought they tasted great. Next time I will double the recipe and try some other variations.

The Bars

About 8 oz. or so of dates

1/2 cup of raw cashews (soaked are best)

Shredded coconut

1 teaspoon of dark cocoa (try to find raw if possible)

You can add some honey as a sweetener if you like.

My daughter is my helper in the kitchen so she did most of the work today. First we heated the dates so we could peel them. She ground the cashews and set aside, then she chopped the dates in the food processor. It took a while to finish up the dates since they were sticky and stuck to the side but she managed to get a nice and smooth batch of dates.

She put the dates in a big glass bowl, and added the other ingredients one at a time. It wasn't easy for her to blend all the ingredients so I had to help her squeeze it all together. You really need to use your hand in order to blend all of it. You have to try and see what works the best, either add all the ingredients at once or one ingredient at a time.

We rolled it out with a rolling pin and cut it in several pieces.

You can experiment and make other flavors. My daughter and I am thinking about making an apple pie flavor next since we love the Lärabar version. Another idea is to flavor them with some essential oils. What flavors would you make?

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Johanna is an aromatherapist and she is passionate about educating people about health, essential oils, real food, natural remedies, and nutrition so they make healthier choices in their lives.
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