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Homemade Energy Bars

Feel free to play around with the ingredients to suit your taste -- or region. Most of the Southwest ingredients are best found online, but you should be able to find amaranth in a lot of supermarkets and pretty much every health food store. 

Prep Time
15 mins
Cook Time
15 mins
Total Time
30 mins
Servings: 12 bars
Calories: 269 kcal
Course: Snacks
Cuisine: American

Ingredients

  • 1 cup chopped pitted dates
  • 1 1/4 cups popped amaranth (or puffed rice)
  • 1 cup quick-cooking oats
  • 1/3 cup chopped pine nuts, pecans, peanuts, walnuts, etc
  • 2 tablespoons mesquite bean flour or flaxseed
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • A healthy pinch of salt, about 1/2 teaspoon
  • 1/2 cup pine nut butter, almond butter, peanut butter, etc
  • 1/3 cup mesquite bean syrup, maple syrup, honey, etc
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup small semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

    Cup of Yum
  1. Grease a sheet pan with butter, oil or cooking spray. Ideally you'd use an 8x8 pan, but anything close to that will work.
  2. Pop the amaranth. The link above goes to a video on how to do it, but it's easy: Get a pot hot over medium-high heat and put about a tablespoon of amaranth seeds in at once. They will pop almost immediately. Move them to a bowl and repeat until you have your 1 1/4 cups. Don't put too much amaranth in the pot at once or it will not pop correctly. It goes really fast, so no big deal.
  3. Mix the chopped dates with the oats, popped amaranth, nuts, mesquite flour, cinnamon and salt together in a bowl.
  4. Put the pine nut butter (or whatever nut butter you use) into a small pot with the syrup or honey and stir together over medium-low heat until well combined. Let this cool for a couple minutes, then stir in the vanilla extract.
  5. Add the nut butter-syrup mixture to the dry ingredients in the bowl, and mix a little. Add the chocolate chips and mix everything well. Move everything to the greased pan and spread it over the bottom of the pan evenly. Pack it good, then let it sit out for an hour or so to set fully. Use a sharp knife to cut out bars, squares or whatever shape you like and wrap with some wax paper. Eat when hungry.

Notes

  • Once made, these bars kept for two months in the fridge, and a full month in a closed container at room temperature in my truck, so they are pretty hardy. They do get more crumbly as they age, however.

Nutrition Information

Calories 269kcal (13%) Carbohydrates 37g (12%) Protein 7g (14%) Fat 12g (18%) Saturated Fat 2g (10%) Cholesterol 1mg (0%) Sodium 12mg (1%) Potassium 335mg (10%) Fiber 4g (16%) Sugar 18g (36%) Vitamin A 102IU (2%) Vitamin C 1mg (1%) Calcium 97mg (10%) Iron 4mg (22%)

Nutrition Facts

Serving: 12bars

Amount Per Serving

Calories 269

% Daily Value*

Calories 269kcal 13%
Carbohydrates 37g 12%
Protein 7g 14%
Fat 12g 18%
Saturated Fat 2g 10%
Cholesterol 1mg 0%
Sodium 12mg 1%
Potassium 335mg 7%
Fiber 4g 16%
Sugar 18g 36%
Vitamin A 102IU 2%
Vitamin C 1mg 1%
Calcium 97mg 10%
Iron 4mg 22%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.