Homemade Lara bars!

In my quest to keep myself from eating every cookie on the planet, I am trying to find some things that I can eat that have ultra-nutrition as well as enough sweetness to conquer the cookie monster that lives inside the Mad-Art Teacher!  I have had some wonderful suggestions from my good friend Tanya over at The Sunday Baker.  The one that is linked here is to the 2 flavors of Lara bars that I made tonight.

I have come across quite a few reasons lately to buy myself a new food processor, so I did this past weekend.  YAY!  I was thrilled with the way it works, it wasn't super expensive, and isn't super big, so it will work out well, once I figure out where to put it.  This recipe was one of the prime motivators that led me to this purchase.  I hope it lasts for a while!

I made the same 2 flavors that Tanya had blogged on her site, because you know, chocolate and peanut butter-- it just doesn't get any better than that!  The ingredients in these bars are very simple and are just plain good food.  The dates have no added anything- no sugar, no anything, just like the raw almonds, cocoa and peanut butter.  The chocolate bars have some mini-chocolate chips in them, but I certainly can live with it!  :)  The calorie count for these is around 150 for an eighth of the recipe.  The peanut butter ones are slightly more than the chocolate.  I have just gone ahead and doubled the recipe that Tanya had posted. I want to make enough to have in the frig or freezer.

This is a messy little process and it is hard to get pretty pictures- so forgive me!

Break out your food processor kids and let's get going!!

First- take your dates and blend them into a paste in the processor.  Remove them from the machine, and put the almonds in.  Process them until you have  finely chopped nuts but not powder!  At this point for the chocolate ones, you add the cocoa to the nuts and blend.

Blend the dates

Add the nuts and chocolate mini chips  to the dates and mix. I found that really you should just forget about a spoon and use your (washed) hands.  Press into a pan or dish, refrigerate and cut into pieces.

For the Peanut Butter ones, process the dates, vanilla and natural peanut butter together and then process the almonds and mix into the date mixture.  SIMPLE!  and REALLY good!

Chocolate Lara Bars

1 cup unsweetened dates
1/2 cup raw almonds
3 Tablespoons cocoa powder
1 1/2 Tablespoons mini chocolate chips

Process the dates in a food processor until it is a paste.  Remove from machine and set aside.

Process the almonds in the processor, finely ground, but not a powder and add cocoa powder and blend.  Pour nut mixture and mini chips into dates and mix (with your hands works well).  Press into flat dish, refrigerate and cut (into 3 large or 6 - 12 small, depending on how big you want them.

Peanut Butter Lara Bars

1 Cup of dates
6 Tablespoons natural peanut butter (no added sugar or salt)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup raw almonds (or another raw nut- cashews, peanuts, walnuts, etc.)
Process the dates, peanut butter and vanilla.  Remove and set aside
Process the nuts and add to dates.  Press into flat dish or pan, refrigerate and cut into pieces.

 If you want to see prettier pictures of the finished bars, go to Tanya's blog.  My chocolate ones were pretty pathetic this time! They didn't hold together as well as hers did, but that is not going to stop me from eating them!  :)

ENJOY!!


****Tanya also makes an awesome oat ball "cookie" that is out of this world! And so many variations.
Here is a link to one of the variations- lots of possibilities there!