Raw energy bars

I came up with the idea for these when I was thinking about what I could make for something different to take with us for a nutritious snack on a family outing to Ocean Park in Hong Kong at the beginning of the school holidays. Miss 5 was favouring my treat balls, but rather than make my usual version, I decided to have a play with the basic ingredients and turn them into a bar for something different! So I made a basic, yet tasty chocolatey mix and turned it into 6 bars just by moulding 3 tbsp of the mixture into a bar shape inside a little plastic bag using my TM spatula. You could easily mould my treat balls into a bar if you wanted to.

The result is a little raw energy bar that you can wrap and take with you as handy little burst of energy when you need it out and about. It's just a shame that I can't send it with my girls to school due to the nut content, as my treat balls have always been a hit with them.

This is what I started with, but there is scope for so much more as I intend to experiment with over the coming weeks. . . while we are on school holidays and I don't have to think 'nut-free'. I will update this page with new recipes as I develop them.

These balls are of course inherently dairy-free, gluten-free, and packed full of dietary fibre and healthy plant fats, plus the sweetness is contributed by whole foods rather than added sugar.

Raw energy bars 
makes 6

ingredients (basic recipe)
100g raw cashews
100g raw walnuts
100g fresh meijool dates
100g dried dates
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
4 tbsp raw cacao  -  if you're a chocoholic like me, you may need 5 :-)


method

1. Add the nuts to the TM bowl and with the MC in place, grind on speed 7 for 10-15 seconds. The ground nuts should look a little moist, but not pastey. You don't want to release too much of the oil content. 
2. Add all other ingredients and combine on speed 7 until the mixture feels fudge-like when you squash some between your fingers. You will also notice that the oils will begin to come out of the nuts. This should only take 10-20 seconds. If you over mix it will become very oily.
3. Scoop 3 tbsp of the mixture from the bowl and place inside a small ziplock bag. Using your TM spatula, push, prod and shape the mixture into a bar measuring about 3.5 x 10cm and voila . . . you have a nutritious little bar of raw food goodness :) My girls love mummy to add a few drops of peppermint oil for a choc-mint bar. 

Variations . . . there are so many ideas

Use your own combination of nuts and seeds to make up the 200g, e.g. pumpkin seeds, almonds, cashew, peanut, pistachio, sunflower seeds, flaxseeds. You could try to make these nut-free by using a combination of seeds only. 

Use any combination of dried fruit such as dried blueberries, raisins, sultanas, apricots, cranberries, figs, dates, goji berries, prunes, apple, cranberries. It is a good idea to include fresh dates for stickiness. 

Add some extra flavouring such as cinnamon or mixed spice, lemon or orange zest, peppermint oil or vanilla.

Replace 50-100g of the fruit with dried or fresh coconut. I like to use fresh coconut in my treat balls.