Healthy snack bar

londonbikerider
Posts: 161
Joined: 22 Nov 2018, 7:58am

Healthy snack bar

Post by londonbikerider »

I'm sure that many people here are not happy to eat most of the "bars" that are sold in shops.
All those "E numbers" and too many ingredients like palm oil and refined sugars, have always put me off some types of food.

So I've been doing my own snack bars for a few weeks now.
Those are incredibly nice, and there's a lot of goodness in them, plus not a gram of refined sugar. It's a win-win for me! :-D

https://naturaldelights.com/recipes/med ... nergy-bars

2 cups Medjool Dates, pitted and chopped (about 20 dates)
2 cups raw cashew nuts
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup natural almonds
Pinch sea salt
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
2 tbsp. vanilla extract
3 tbsp. cold water
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Cugel
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Re: Healthy snack bar

Post by Cugel »

londonbikerider wrote:I'm sure that many people here are not happy to eat most of the "bars" that are sold in shops.
All those "E numbers" and too many ingredients like palm oil and refined sugars, have always put me off some types of food.

So I've been doing my own snack bars for a few weeks now.
Those are incredibly nice, and there's a lot of goodness in them, plus not a gram of refined sugar. It's a win-win for me! :-D

https://naturaldelights.com/recipes/med ... nergy-bars

2 cups Medjool Dates, pitted and chopped (about 20 dates)
2 cups raw cashew nuts
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup natural almonds
Pinch sea salt
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
2 tbsp. vanilla extract
3 tbsp. cold water


The ladywife has long supplied me with the proper nutrition via her various cakes lacking the refined sugars, e-numbers and such. Now she eats them too, since we started cycling together in hilly Wales. Despite her battery, them hills burn lotsa calories.

But it's unusual, these days, to find folk who are either willing or able to make their own food from raw ingredients. "Convenience" fud is all the rage despite being full of questionables not to mention bluddy expensive. Do they do domestic science (queer term) at skool these days? Or home economics (another slightly pekuliar old name)?

Modern folk often claim that they have no time for such drudgery. They miss so many points there! It's not drudgery; it's a fine use of time; it escapes the predations of the fud "industry". (A telling terminology, that).

Another advantage of the home-made bike-fuel cake is that it comes without it's own weight in litter......

Cugel
“Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence are usually the slaves of some defunct economist”.
John Maynard Keynes
londonbikerider
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Joined: 22 Nov 2018, 7:58am

Re: Healthy snack bar

Post by londonbikerider »

Cugel wrote:...

Another advantage of the home-made bike-fuel cake is that it comes without it's own weight in litter......

Cugel


That's a very good point!

And I do agree with the logic of "ain't no time", this does not come as surprise if you consider the booming of those "Deliveroo/Just Eat/etc," things, now you can have breakfast from McDonalds delivered, which has to be the eptitome of lazyness :-(
Oldjohnw
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Joined: 16 Oct 2018, 4:23am
Location: South Warwickshire

Re: Healthy snack bar

Post by Oldjohnw »

I stick with home made fruitcake. A bit of grease proof paper as a wrapper. But the OP's recipe looks rather interesting : thanks.
John
whoof
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Re: Healthy snack bar

Post by whoof »

I've been making the following
150g oats (toasted in oven for 10-15 minutes)
1 tin of prunes (stones removed) + the juice or equivalent dried prunes stewed in water for 10-15 minutes then liquidised.
Handfull of chopped nuts, handfull of chopped dried fruit.
50g desiccated coconut.
1 tea spoon of cinnamon
If you do want to add some more sweetness add 1 tablespoon honey.

Mix together, pack into a baking tray and give it about 20 minutes in the oven.

Nothing needs to be that accurate as your not trying to get something to rise or be soft and light.
thelawnet
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Joined: 27 Aug 2010, 12:56am

Re: Healthy snack bar

Post by thelawnet »

healthy cakes are a bit of a fad.

I thought they were a lie.

Cakes can't be healthy.

But no, tis true (in a way).

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/03/heal ... index.html

The issues with our diets are the LACK of nuts and seeds, LACK of whole grains and so on.

So these sort of fruit bars made with things like nuts (high in fat, but very healthy) can only be a good thing.

I am not sure about coconuts. The consensus as I understand it is for unsaturated fats, though some people say coconuts are healthy, it seems at least doubtful. More nuts and/or seeds would probably be better. Peanuts are cheap and healthy.

ok, they aren't really cakes, because flour seems to be something to be avoided.

but you can make a flourless almond cake for example. I have done a few times, it works well (but don't use chocolate, it overpowers the almonds)

of course refined flour is far cheaper than nuts, which explains why it's so popular.
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Gattonero
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Location: London

Re: Healthy snack bar

Post by Gattonero »

^ this

I am a sweet tooth, so if I can avoid refined sugars and flours of questionable origin, it can only be good. Will try the ones above today! :D
It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best,
since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them.
Thus you remember them as they actually are...
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Audax67
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Re: Healthy snack bar

Post by Audax67 »

My own suggestion:

Banana energy caramel (tested recipe)

Simple & delicious, this delightful confection will galvanize your long-distance escapades.

Ingredients:

1 banana
4 measures of energy-drink powder (maltodextrin, fructose, what-have-you)

Utensils:

1 saddlebag
1 bike lock with key sticking out (important)
1 well-aged freezer bag

Décor

1 box tyre patches
1 baseball cap
1 CO2 pump
1 roll of black tape


Procedure:

1. Put the drink powder in the well-aged freezer bag. Put this with the other ingredients, utensils & décor in the saddlebag.
2. Put the bag on the bike.
3. Ride.
4. Every 50k, leave the bike standing in the sun for 15 minutes
5. Every 100k, ditto for one hour.
6. Go home. Take bag off bike & toss in cupboard.

If this works as well for you as it did for me, the next time you open the bag you will find that:

1. The well-aged freezer bag has ruptured;
2. The key has penetrated the banana
3. The banana has been macerated by vibration & bumps
4. The resulting mousse has mixed intimately with the energy-drink powder
5. Heat and evaporation have hardened the mixture into caramel, but not before it covered every other article in proximity (the décor)
6. The well-aged freezer bag is stuck firmly to the bottom of the bag, and wrenching it loose tears it wide open and powders everything else.

If you're lucky, you'll discover all this before your next ride. If not, at 100k from home.

Bon appetit!
Have we got time for another cuppa?
Cyril Haearn
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Re: Healthy snack bar

Post by Cyril Haearn »

Flapjack
Porridge on a stick, without the stick
(Debs of this parish)
Entertainer, juvenile, curmudgeon, PoB, 30120
Cycling-of course, but it is far better on a Gillott
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Gattonero
Posts: 3730
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Location: London

Re: Healthy snack bar

Post by Gattonero »

Audax67 wrote:My own suggestion:

Banana energy caramel (tested recipe)

Simple & delicious, this delightful confection will galvanize your long-distance escapades.

Ingredients:

1 banana
4 measures of energy-drink powder (maltodextrin, fructose, what-have-you)

Utensils:

1 saddlebag
1 bike lock with key sticking out (important)
1 well-aged freezer bag

Décor

1 box tyre patches
1 baseball cap
1 CO2 pump
1 roll of black tape


Procedure:

1. Put the drink powder in the well-aged freezer bag. Put this with the other ingredients, utensils & décor in the saddlebag.
2. Put the bag on the bike.
3. Ride.
4. Every 50k, leave the bike standing in the sun for 15 minutes
5. Every 100k, ditto for one hour.
6. Go home. Take bag off bike & toss in cupboard.

If this works as well for you as it did for me, the next time you open the bag you will find that:

1. The well-aged freezer bag has ruptured;
2. The key has penetrated the banana
3. The banana has been macerated by vibration & bumps
4. The resulting mousse has mixed intimately with the energy-drink powder
5. Heat and evaporation have hardened the mixture into caramel, but not before it covered every other article in proximity (the décor)
6. The well-aged freezer bag is stuck firmly to the bottom of the bag, and wrenching it loose tears it wide open and powders everything else.

If you're lucky, you'll discover all this before your next ride. If not, at 100k from home.

Bon appetit!


Do you eat that with a shoe or a comb? :lol:
It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best,
since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them.
Thus you remember them as they actually are...
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Sweep
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Location: London

Re: Healthy snack bar

Post by Sweep »

Gattonero wrote:^ this

I am a sweet tooth, so if I can avoid refined sugars and flours of questionable origin, it can only be good. Will try the ones above today! :D


cripes an italian praising a brit on food :wink:

Will return with my own cycling snack recipe in the next few days if I can dig it out - though in truth these days I just tend to improvise from its base idea for speed of preparation.

as whoof says upthread - it's not that critical - for it's not so much baking/cooking as just getting nice stuff to stick together in a usable lump.
Sweep
whoof
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Re: Healthy snack bar

Post by whoof »

Cyril Haearn wrote:Flapjack
Porridge on a stick, without the stick
(Debs of this parish)

I don't think i would be wanting to eat Deb's porridge for breakfast. Most flapjack recipes have about as much butter and golden syrup in them as they do oats.
BTW the term porridge relates to wet stodge of usually starchy foodstuff. Which is usually oats in the UK but can be barley, millet etc. If it's not wet it's not a porridge.
LollyKat
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Joined: 28 May 2011, 11:25pm
Location: Scotland

Re: Healthy snack bar

Post by LollyKat »

This is my favourite, from Mrs R2. They are dead easy to make, too. I never go anywhere without some. They keep well in a tin, too.

reohn2 wrote:Mrs R2's Mueseli bars without added* sugar:-
one 397g can of condensed milk
250g rolled oats
75g of prunes and dried apricots
100g dried cranberries
125g mixed seeds
125g cashews or unsalted peanuts.
preheat oven to 130deg C /gas mark 1to2 and oil a baking tray
Warm the condensed milk
Mix all the other ingredients and then add the C/milk,fold it with a spatula
Spread the mix into the tin and press down and even out with the spatula or hands
Bake for an hour,leave for about 15mins to cool,no longer,then cut into portions.
Rocket fuel :)
*there's sugar in the condensed milk but not much
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CyclingGuy
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Re: Healthy snack bar

Post by CyclingGuy »

I make my own energy bars / balls using this recipe - https://cyclinglabs.net/home-made-energy-balls but roll them in dessicated coconut to make them a little less sticky (plus i love the taste of coconut)

Neil
Read about my adventures on the British Cycle Quest at: http://www.quest.nwarwick.co.uk
LollyKat
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Location: Scotland

Re: Healthy snack bar

Post by LollyKat »

Mmmm - those look good!
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