A few months ago, hubby and I embarked on a weight loss journey. Of course, he lost way more than me- as is per usual- but I definitely feel so much better since I’ve been eating better. One of the delicious foods I discovered was Lara Bars. They are the only snack/granola-ish/protein-ish bar that I have found that has only a few ingredients- and you know what they all are! If you take a look at other bars, they list about 50 ingredients and who knows what half of them are.
Lara Bars are made from a base of dates- so no added sugar is necessary. The only downside of Lara Bars? They’re pretty expensive, coming in at around $1.50-$2 a bar. I only eat half of one at a time, but that still can add up. I remember seeing on Pinterest that they could be made pretty easily, but I wasn’t really convinced.
Well. I finally decided one day to put my new food processor to use (LOVE it- here’s the one I have) and make my own version of Lara Bars. A friend of mine picked up some dates for me from Costco- $8 for 2 pounds. I had to pit them, which I was also worried would take forever- but I used the directions over here and it took me literally about 3 minutes to remove the pits from a pound of dates!
Then the next part of the process was even quicker. I tried three different versions, (I’ll be sharing the other two later) but the easiest one was our favorite! I threw in 1.5 cup dates and 1 cup of salted roasted peanuts into the food processor for a few minutes and voila! It was almost done. (Note of caution: as I was removing the mixture from the food processor, I cut my hand on the blade even though it wasn’t moving. Be careful, those babies are sharp!)
Once you remove the mixture, simply roll it into balls a little larger than a marble. (You can make it into bars as well, but rolling it seems a little easier.) Mine made about 16 Lara Bar bites.
Mmm these are so yummy. I’m currently munching one in between typing!
What’s your favorite healthy snack?
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About Kelli Hays
LaraBars are a great go to snack for me as well! You can find a big box of them at Costco for a reasonable price, when you don’t have time to make these. I also love nuts, carrots, Chobani, or a large spoonful of nut butter for afternoon snacks.
favorite healthy snack is fruit! I am a major fruit salad lover
Awesome! I am pinning this….I have the dried figs from Costco…I wonder with a bit of water if they would work.
Yum! I’m pinning this!
I just tried this, Kelli. It is yummy! I put some coconut oil on my hands while rolling them so I could handle the stickiness.
Yummy little bites! Yet, I had some challenges. Firstly, the nuts and dates would not process (too dry I think) so I added a dash if fruit juice to get it going. Secondly, it was a VERY sticky mixture and I couldn’t get it off my hands without leaving half behind. So I put the processor back on and then added some organic dried coconut flakes hoping to dry the mixture out a bit, but that didn’t work either. Now it is a sticky mess that I spread onto a baking sheet and stuck it into the freezer. I hope I will be able to shape it into tinier bite size pieces. Helpful tips will be appreciated.