Made my own Kid’s Clif Bar again, and wrote down the recipe as I did it, and took pictures. This time I left out the chocolate to make them a healthy real food snack. They’re good, and best of all they’re filling enough to be an easy substantial snack. Nutrition info at the end of the post.
Ingredients for Homemade Clif Bars:
4 cups rolled oats
1-1/2 cups crispy pecans (I suppose regular pecans could work too, I just had these)
1-1/2 cup dates packed, approx 15 large ones (see below)
1/4 cup coconut milk
4 tablespoons grade B maple syrup (I would think that honey would work as well)
1/2 tsp sea salt
Blend in food processor in order listed above. Press into a 8×8 or 9×9 pan, bake at 325 degrees 30 minutes. Allow to cool for a bit, then cut into bars. Allow to cool completely before packaging.
Crispy pecans
mixture of pecans and oats. Sorry it’s blurry, but I like to see the pictures of consistency when I read recipes that are made in the food processor
Pitted dates. I got these from Costco, they’re soft and whole. I had to take the pits out. I’ve seen, for lack of a better description, date pellets before that are pretty hard and don’t have the pits. If you have those, I’d pour boiling water over them in a bowl, let sit for an hour or so, drain, and then measure out 1-1/2 cups so they add the moisture.
date/oat/pecan mixture
after adding the wet ingredients
Using a calorie counter online, cut into 12 bars, each bar has:
243 calories total
81 calories from fat
9 g fat
2.2 g saturated fat
36.3 g carbohydrate
5.1 g dietary fiber
14.3 g sugar (no refined sugar though)
7.2 g protein
Too low in protein and fat to be a good breakfast on it’s own, but I made these for snacks, and I think they’re just fine for that, for our family at least. I gave my toddler 1/2 of one for a snack today, and it seemed to hold her for a while.
Related posts:
About home made Clif Bars
Improving a biscotti recipe
I’ll try this for Sayer . . . now that he’s living at his dad’s his diet has really gone downhill. I am trying to provide things he can grab on the go (and that he will actually eat!). Getting teenage boys to eat well can be challenging . . .
Have you tried a raw snack bar? Also, I was going to make up a big jar of homemade organic ‘instant’ oatmeal for Sayer. He eats the Quaker Oats stuff in packages . . . mostly full of sugar and not organic. I was going to pulse my whole oats a bit and add dried fruit and chopped nuts. He has braces so some things won’t work right now . . . any tips?
I hope he’s happy with the meals! I haven’t tried a raw bar, though I have done fruit roll ups and dried fruit in my dehydrator
We all like squash fries too, thinly sliced butternut squash, tossed in olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt, then dehydrated until crispy. Much less messy than deep frying.
What do you think about coconut milk? I made the yummiest coconut milk smoothie that Darin and I both loved yesterday- just 1 can of coconut milk, 4 cups of orange juice, and some ice. I find that I crave sweets and junk food less when I include lots of coconut fat in my diet, and it’s really filling!
I’m committed to less/no use of plastics . . . putting these goodies in waxed paper/waxed paper bags, foil or sealed glass containers would work nicely too : )
That’s good! I was trying to use less plastics for a while, but at the moment we’re using plenty. I pick my battles
These look great , I will be trying these!!
Thanks,
Moira
check this out for
Man, the ingredient list looks great, mmmm. I just made some today with oatmeal, PB, coconut oil, flaxseed, dark chocolate chips, vanilla whey powder, and pumpkin puree, but am planning on trying this combination next. Thanks for sharing!