Friday, April 3, 2009

Fruit and Nut Bars

I fell for Larabars a few years ago when they were handing out samples at the Cherry Creek Arts Festival. That's actually saying something because I am not a fan of the nutrition bar aisle at the market.

That being said, loving Larabars was a surprise to me. Granted they are not really touted as meal replacement or nutrition bars, they are more of a snack item. I keep a stash in my desk at work to avoid those vending machine cravings. My only wish has been that they would reduce the size. These are filling little suckers and half a bar does the trick. And each time I evaluate the the ingredient list, I often wonder if I couldn't make my own version of these at home.

One of my fav flavors, banana cookie (or banana bread as they now appear to be called) had exactly three ingredients: almonds, dates and unsweetened bananas. Even the schmancier chocolate line adds only a bit of flavor and cocoa powder. Surely this wasn't rocket science.

I require a bit of green to my bananas in order to eat them straight and giving the banana cookie version a try would be the perfect way to use those ripened bananas I always seem to have. I sliced the bananas fairly thin and put them in a 175 degree oven for three hours. Three bananas yielded almost a cup of dehydrated bananas. Warning: dried bananas without preservatives are not pretty. Then it was food processor time for all three ingredients.


Fruit and Nut Bars

1 c. dates
1 c. dried bananas
2/3 c. almonds
1. Process dates and bananas together to create a small chunk crumb. Remove from food processor and place in bowl
2. Process almonds for 20-30 seconds. Add to bowl with date mixture.
3. Knead with hands until fully combined.
4. Shape or roll out mixture to about 1/2 inch thick. Refrigerate.
5. Cut into desired bars (or smaller snack servings...yay!)


I can't believe I waited so long to give this a try. They tasted just like banana cookie bar even though I chose a smaller almond to fruit ratio. I'm guessing that the bananas could be replaced with dried cherries for the cherry bar version and cashews or pecans would make a fabulous substitute for the almonds. Truly a bar that meets the food experience requirements.

6 comments:

Leslie said...

wow your version looks great. i have heard of these larabars before but i have never seen them in the store. will you be making your own to take to work from now on?n i would love to try making them on my own but alas there is no good grocery store here without driving for a year over the mountain.

Brown Family Blog said...

Oh my goodness...you are so fun! I will have to try these. What a great healthy snack for Eli (if I can get him to eat it...maybe I will call them cookies). You are such a smarty!

Sigh...miss you. Sure there are no deals happening in ATL anytime soon?

Shannon Hardin said...

The vending machine at the company I last contracted to had peanut butter Larabars in it. The vending machine accepted credit cards. Needless to say, I was soon addicted and deeply in debt.

Yours look great, but if you try to sell them as Marybars you are probably just asking for a lawsuit. Do you think you could make them in gooseberry?

Lynn said...

Well well well, what a surprise. Of course you would like your bananas on the green side. So do I!

Now this is what separates you from the every day cook, you can visualize this and figure out what to do to make your own fruit & nut bar. I am really impressed. I think I am going to give this a try with dried cherries.

What a clever person you are.

Mary said...

Shanks all!

Dee--no trips to Atlanta...:( though I keep thinking I'll need to come out there soon. In the meantime it's back to Montana for work.

Brown Family Blog said...

Hey Mary! Its a good thing you made your own Larabars!!! Check it out... http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/peanutbutterrecall/