Anytime Bars {paleo, raw, vegan, dairy & gluten free}
Creamy Coconut Asparagus Soup
Zesty Lemon Dressing
Salmon Cakes
Steak Fajitas {paleo, diary & gluten free}
Latest
- 1 cup soaked cashews
- 3/4 cup dried apricots
- 3/4 cup shredded coconut
- 2 tbsp. cacao powder
- 1 tbsp. coconut oil
- 1/4 cup chocolate chips *optional
- 1-2 tbsp. raw honey *optional
I just love when a recipe has only a handful of ingredients that are packed with nutrients and taste great too!! One of the most common questions we get from patients and friends is what protein/breakfast bars are good? Well let me just tell you this, we have searched high and low and everywhere in between to tell you none of them are perfect!
While perfect is over-rated , taste usually takes a back seat when the Doc and I approve the ingredients. Or how about the bars that taste like dry cardboard, that you paid an arm and a leg for and that practically took a tooth out while chomping on it? {Sheesh}!
Over the years we have ordered several companies’ bars and tested them out. Very few pass the clean, tasty, cost effective test. One of the only “snack” bars you can buy that I can comfortably say is clean and tastes great are the Kind Bars! With that said, this recipe is cost effective, taste great, clean, has a nice balance of protein and carbs as well as low in sugar!
I use dried apricots to sweeten this bar as they have less sugar in comparison to the ever so popular date. Using dried apricots I was able to keep the sugar at about 5 grams a bar verses the popular date would have been over 12 grams of sugar! Apricots have a pretty nice health bio, with its rich antioxidant levels of A, C and quercetin, flavonoids and many phytonutrients!
I should mention the Good Doc says that 15 grams of sugar is the max at one sitting to stay in the safe health zone and yes that goes for fruit sugar as well. Many of the popular bars even in the health food store are well over 20 grams of sugar! Don’t get me started on the conventional pseudo breakfast bars that are marketed as healthy. Let us get to the good stuff……..
The other super star in this lineup is my favorite most versatile food, coconut! With all the research on lauric acid in coconut oil to the minerals and electrolytes in coconut water I sure hope you have utilized its amazingness in your diet somehow. I love using coconut oil and low glycemic coconut granules {sugar} in baking, as well as coconut flour as an alternative.
I could go on and on about how the creamy cashew is brilliant with it’s essential magnesium or the cocao powder with its iron rich minerals but I won’t bore you. I just get so fired up with food science I can’t help myself and brag on these nutrient packed foods that we take for granted! So instead I will just say you can eat these DE-LICIOUS bars “Anytime”! ♥
- 1 cup soaked cashews
- ¾ cup dried apricots {about 25)
- ¾ cup shredded coconut
- 2 tbsp. cacao powder
- 1 tbsp. coconut oil
- ¼ cup chocolate chips *optional {lily's stevia sweetened}
- 1-2 tbsp. raw honey *optional
- In a food processor pulse all ingredients, except honey and chips.
- Taste mix and decide if you need honey. Mix till ingredients will stick together.
- Add chips if desired {I sometimes do half the batch}, then pulse gently few times.
- On a cookie sheet with unbleached parchment paper, press dough into a rectangle ½ inch thick.
- Put in the fridge to set for 30 minutes. Or in the freezer for a 10 minutes.
- They will stay fresh for up to 3 days in the fridge.
P.S. If you would like more information about how to soak nuts please read this helpful post.
With a Spoonful of Health,
I want to try these too! I’ve been buying Quest bars but they’re probably horrible nutrition wise huh? To be honest, they aren’t worth the money in my opinion. So I’m excited to try these out!!
Question: How much protein do these have or does it really even matter? I’ve read that it doesn’t and I’m not really going for a body building comp so it doesn’t matter but I’d love to hear your thoughts!
I knew you’d have some good info for me! You know your stuff! I heard that it’s good to grind hemp seeds to increase absorption…. True?
Btw for sure call me Nurse Kate! Deep down it makes my heart happy. ☺️❤️ And I’m so happy you love Balance. It’s my fav. Everyone needs it in their life.
Can you give the link on how to soak nuts?