Monday, February 28, 2011

Home Made Protein Bar

A friend of mine had a birthday this past week and I was invited to dinner to celebrate. He said he checked the online menu and there were at least a few vegetarian options. I soon found out it was basically a "House of Meat" Eastern European style! (did you want a side of meat with your meat?)

These are some of the barriers that I come across knowing so many meat eaters. Any occasion can turn into a hassle with me either having to eat before I meet up, eating only sides that don't fill me up or give me nutrition or suffering through and eating waaaay too late when I get home.

This time, I opted for the "house salad" which actually ended up being almost a full cucumber and a tomato with a roasted red pepper with some kind of vinaigrette dressing. IT WAS SO YUMMY! I got some rice on the side as well. I can't say I got all my nutrients out of the meal, but I was full.

I always carry almonds and a homemade protein bar in my bag for such occasions. I don't think I would make it through most dinners if I didn't ;)

The protein bar that I eat is a variation of Brendan Braziers. Using his Vega cuts down on a lot of excess ingredients as well.

1 cup fresh dried dates (or you can soak them for a couple hours to make them softer)
1/4 cup almonds
1/4 cup cocoa
1/4 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup ground flax seeds
1/4 cup hemp hearts
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
2 scoops of Vega mix

I don't have a food processor (gasp!) so I do all the chopping by hand. I actually like doing this manually as it relaxes me and I can either watch tv or talk on the phone while doing it. I guess it's a little like people who are relaxed by knitting (which I am not! - I'm such a BAD knitter!)

Finely chop the dates, almonds and any other nuts into little pieces. I don't soak my dates as they seem to mush when I'm mixing anyway, but if you aren't into taking your time it would be worth it to pre-soak.

In a coffee grinder, grind your flax seeds, chia seeds and hemp hearts. (Almonds would be harder, so I just chop them myself)

Mix everything else together but the blueberries, leave them till the end....mush factor ;). Once everything is a wonderful semi stiff blob, form either into balls or what I do is I flatten it our and cut into 1" by 2" rectangles. Store in the fridge or freezer!

I have mine for a few weeks, but they kind of loose their freshness after about a week and a half.

Here is the video with the one and only Brendan Braizer making his version!

Brendan Brazier


Let me know if you try it or have your own recipe! I'd love to try different variations!

1 comment:

  1. I've made a couple variations of the LaraBar - but I think you have that link already...I might try your recipe - it looks tasty!

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