Making some PB Bars...Larabars

Breakfast is a meal that I've never really eaten. It could be because most breakfast food involve eggs and I hate don't really like eggs. Back in the day (you know, the day -  unmarried, no kids, more sleep, more time) when I went to the gym every morning, I would eat a granola bar. I know it's not a balanced breakfast. I know it's the most important meal of the day. And yes, I know I am breakfast challenged. Lately I've been trying the breakfast thing again, I've been eating Larabars because they have a good amount of protein and fiber, and they are easy to eat while chasing a child that seems to only have one speed - faster. Miranda made sure to point out to me that Larabars are vegan and raw -- so beware people, these could be a gateway food to becoming a vegan! I'm kidding!!! Vegan aside, these are good energy bars, but they are uber expensive...and I am uber cheap when it comes to breakfast food. I had seen a few pins about making homemade Larabars but I was leery because honestly, it seemed too easy.

This is the pin from Rawified that I initially pinned, but I have a warning for you. For some reason Pinterest has now deemed the pin as spam AND it was a raw food blog that fried Miranda's computer so I am not giving you a live link because well, I value my laptop and yours too. There are a million other pins for Larabars though if you want to find another one because you don't trust my recipe.

Honestly, I don't know why I didn't make these before now. They are so easy to make and taste really good. The longest step was finding my food processor - it was in one of the six boxes labeled "kitchen" that was sitting in the living room. Awesome. There are a ton of different recipes that you can try, but since I didn't have time to find unsweetened coconut to make some yummy key lime, I decided to make peanut butter. Yum. Here is the whole recipe. Take some pitted dates and some peanuts and throw them in your food processor. Process. Shape. Eat. So simple it seems silly. There are a lot of variations to make your own custom flavor, just follow these basic principles:
  • 1 cup nuts:
    • Almonds, walnuts, pecans, cashews, pistachios, peanuts, hazelnuts, etc.
  • 1 cup sweet dried fruit
    • Dates, raisins, figs, prunes, etc. 
  • 1 cup filling (optional)
    • Dried cherries, dried blueberries, dried apricot, dried pineapple, cranberries, goji berries, more chopped nuts, dried coconut, chocolate chips, coffee beans, cacao nibs, shredded carrot, etc.  
  • 2 - 4 tbsp flavoring (optional)
    • Cacao, vanilla, cinnamon, citrus zest and juice, ginger, mint, cloves, coconut oil.
For the peanut butter bars, I used 1 cup of dates (packed tightly) and 1 cup of unsalted dry roasted peanuts (if you are keeping track, my peanuts weren't raw so my bars are technically not either, but you could use raw peanuts if you wanted to stay true to Larabars). After adding them both to the food processor, I pulsed them until the mixture started to come together, but still had texture. After that I dumped it out on wax paper and formed the bars. My mixture made four big bars or five small bars. Tasty. You should go find some dates and make some. I am planning on making some key lime once I have a chance to get some unsweetened coconut. I think I need to try some banana bread too. Oh the plans I have... so many plans!

Also -- Make sure you go over to Our Reflection and check out our guest post. We want to thank Laura for letting us hang out with her and her readers today!