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Wellness Energy Bars

October 21, 2010 by Katie Wells
Wellness Energy Bars with Dates and Nuts

I am more excited about this recipe than I have been about almost any other post until now. For months, I have been playing around with recipes to make a homemade, kid-approved, easy to make, all natural, raw, gluten-free, dairy-free, portable energy bar that isn’t too messy. After months of trial and error (mainly error) and a messy kitchen, I stumbled upon a recipe that is not only easy to make, but tastes great and meets all of my other requirements (and they cost less to make than conventional energy bars too).

Why make an energy bar, you ask? There are so many already out there to choose from! There are several problems really… (a) many of these bars contain fillers, chemicals and artificial flavorings, and (b) these bars have to be shipped and stored on a shelf, so they must contain preservatives.

Don’t believe me? Here is the list of ingredients from Clif Bar’s own website for their Chocolate Almond Fudge Bar:

Ingredients: Organic Brown Rice Syrup, Organic Rolled Oats, ClifPro® (Soy Rice Crisps [Soy Protein Isolate, Rice Flour, Barley Malt Extract], Organic Roasted Soybeans, Organic Soy Flour), Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Chocolate Chips (Evaporated Cane Juice, Unsweetened Chocolate, Cocoa Butter, Soy Lecithin, Natural Flavors), Almond Butter, Dry Roasted Almonds, Organic Fig Paste, Cocoa, ClifCrunch® (Apple Fiber, Organic Oat Fiber, Organic Milled Flaxseed, Inulin [Chicory Extract], Psyllium), Sea Salt, Natural Flavors.

Besides the fact that the word “soy” appears on that label five times, the first ingredient is brown rice syrup. If the first ingredient is a concentrated, high-carbohydrate syrup that is made from a grain, the rest can’t be good!

I looked for better options, but most bars have a similar ingredient list to this one. Powerbar had almost the same ingredients, as did Clif’s other products. Check your favorite bar and let me know what is in it! I did find one bar that was pretty good, the Larabar. Unfortunately, Larabars are rather expensive, and being a do-it-yourselfer, I wanted to figure out a homemade version anyway. The end result is an improvement on the Larabar, in my opinion.

This recipe is incredibly easy to make, takes very little time, has countless variations and has few ingredients. Kids love it and it can be a great alternative to the snacks that kids usually get!

Uses for the Wellness Bar: Fast on the go meal, delicious snack for kids, easy dessert, camping or hiking food, energy bar for sustained workouts, and non-messy food for road trips.

Wellness Energy Bars with Dates and Nuts

Wellness Energy Bars Recipe

Katie Wells
A simple and healthy meal-on-the-go bar that is similar to a Cashew Lara Bar.
4.23 from 9 votes
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 5 mins
Cook Time 10 mins
Total Time 15 mins
Course Snack
Servings 6 +
Calories 72 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 1/3 cup nuts (such as cashews or almonds)
  • 3 large dates (pits removed)
  • ¼ cup raisins
  • 1 dash cinnamon (optional)

Instructions
 

  • Put nuts into a food processor and chop into small pieces.
  • Remove and put in bowl.
  • Put dates and raisins (or any combination of the two that equals ½ cup total) into the food processor and pulse until playdough consistency. It will start to clump together when it is done.
  • Add fruit paste to the chopped nuts and mix them by hand until well incorporated and the consistency of stiff playdough or cookie dough. You could also do this in the food processor.
  • Roll between two sheets of wax paper to ½ inch thickness and cut into bars. Or make it really easy and just roll into energy balls!
  • Wrap in wax paper, plastic wrap, or snack size ziploc bags (or glass containers if you aren't giving to kids) and store in the refrigerator until ready to use.
  • Enjoy!

Nutrition

Serving: 1barCalories: 72kcalCarbohydrates: 12.2gProtein: 1.5gFat: 2.7gSaturated Fat: 0.2gSodium: 1mgFiber: 1.5gSugar: 9g
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Like this recipe? Check out my new cookbook, or get all my recipes (over 500!) in a personalized weekly meal planner here!

UPDATE: I’ve also now made a chia seed energy bar that I like at least this much or better. Here’s the recipe.

Ever made your own energy bars? Let me know what you think of these below!

These healthy wellness energy bars are a mix of dates and nuts with any customizable flavor combinations for a delicious grain free snack.

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Category: Breakfast Recipes, Recipes, Snack Recipes

About Katie Wells

Katie Wells, CTNC, MCHC, Founder and CEO of Wellness Mama and Co-Founder of Wellnesse, has a background in research, journalism, and nutrition. As a wife and mom of six, she turned to research and took health into her own hands to find answers to her health problems. WellnessMama.com is the culmination of her thousands of hours of research and all posts are medically reviewed and verified by the Wellness Mama research team. Katie is also the author of the bestselling books The Wellness Mama Cookbook and The Wellness Mama 5-Step Lifestyle Detox.

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Reader Interactions

Discussion (58 Comments)

  1. Dotty

    July 14, 2011 at 1:12 PM

    These are really good.  Ds was away from home for a while and started eating Clif bars.  I think I talked him out of that and some bread with lots of soy in it.  If I keep something like this around when I have enough of the ingredients, it should help.  

    Reply
  2. Emily

    July 11, 2011 at 4:48 PM

    I recently found your blog, and I decided to make these for my husband b/c he takes “fiber” bars for breakfast each day.  Unfortunately (well, not exactly) my 2 daughters can’t stop eating them.  My 2 year old keeps asking for more candy bar.  Thanks for sharing your knowledge & your mission.

    Reply
  3. Michelle

    May 27, 2011 at 1:04 PM

    Hi, this is a great site! Thanks for sharing your wealth of knowledge. Someone else asked about soaking nuts. Not sure, maybe I missed the post (am new here), but is there more info about it? I’m pretty much “scared” of eating nuts now.. How does one soak and dry nuts without a dehydrator?  I live in the Netherlands and things go VERY different around here.. Sigh..

    Reply
    • Wellness Mama

      June 14, 2011 at 4:16 AM

      You can soak normally and just dehydrate in an oven on the lowest
      setting for a few hours. Hope that helps some!

      Reply
  4. Scota

    May 25, 2011 at 2:51 PM

    I just found your blog and I am literally in love with it. It is “my face” really :))) Thank you for your generosity, go on sharing your knowledge.

    Reply
  5. Elsa

    May 8, 2011 at 8:03 PM

    Just made these without a food processor, with raw walnuts, but added 3 more dates, a tablespoon of shredded coconut and another tablespoon of milled flax seed! they are so yummy!!! 🙂 I was going to add the cinnamon but forgot! oops, any chance to use cinnamon I go for. Cant wait to garb one before or after my dance classes or a bike ride. 🙂

    Reply
  6. Kvander

    April 18, 2011 at 4:26 PM

    Do these freeze well if I were to do a large batch to freeze and then thaw when needed?

    Reply
    • Wellness Mama

      April 18, 2011 at 5:03 PM

      I’ve only tried freezing them once, but it seemed to work great!

      Reply
  7. Ryan

    March 21, 2011 at 11:54 PM

    These look less messy than mine – I always accidentally add too much coconut oil (I’m too lazy to measure precisely). I love to add shredded coconut and cocoa powder too – I feel like I’m eating a candy bar!

    Reply
  8. Steven

    March 8, 2011 at 4:55 PM

    Even better-tasting than I had hoped…it’s amazing that there’s not any added sugar/honey. Really excellent and just in time for a weekend sports’ meet. Thanks so much for sharing! =)

    Reply
  9. Audrey 'Huss' Charba

    February 28, 2011 at 1:58 AM

    Made another batch of “energy balls” this afternoon:
    1/2 c shredded coconut
    1 c soaked/dried almonds chopped finely in processor
    1.5 c raisins–chopped in processor
    1T warm coconut oil

    Dried Apricots and cashews with coconut is yummy too!

    Reply
  10. Carrie Husse

    January 19, 2011 at 11:59 AM

    Looks great! Should the nuts be soaked first?

    Reply
    • Wellness Mama

      January 19, 2011 at 7:30 PM

      It is better to soak them overnight and then dry them in the oven the next day. Post on that coming soon!

      Reply
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