Home Made Nutrition Bars?

Cafe Society
1

So, I’ve decided to try to eat healthier, with an emphasis on protein and unsaturated fats, but unfortunately I have very little time to cook on a daily basis. Those protein/nutrition bars out there (Luna, Balance, Zone, Power) etc would theoretically be ideal, except 1) They tend to have quite a bit of sugar and sugar alcohols, and 2) They are expensive!

Is there a way I could make a batch of bars with maybe oatmeal, protein powder, flaxseeds, peanut butter and raisins, or similar ingredients (basically I’m looking for high-protein, low sugar, unprocessed foods)? I would love to make a batch on the weekends, cut them up and store them for the week. Any idea how to go about this? Thanks!

Gestalt

2

Yep yep. There’s the easy way and the better way. The easy way is to take the nut butters of your choice (peanut, almond, cashew, etc.), some honey, and the dried stuff of your choice, fiddle with the amounts of each until you end up with a stiff dough, spread it into a rectangle, cut into bars and coat in chocolate or powdered sugar so it’s not so sticky to the touch.

The better way is to follow Alton Brown’s recipe for Power Bars. Less fat, more nutritional balance.

3

Awesome! I’d been considering making a similar thread for a while now. The lack of nutritional information accompanying Alton Brown’s recipe bugs me, though. Is there anywhere to find that online, or shall I be breaking out the ol’ nutritional calculators?

4

Oooh, thanks. I wonder if I can avoid using the sugar . . . could I put a tbsp of honey in there maybe? Also, could add some of those fiber one cereal pellets, crushed?

5

Gestalt, I don’t see why you couldn’t! Read the reviews to get an idea of other substitutions people have made that turned out well.

I’m not sure adding extra fiber is necessary, though: the half cup of oat bran will probably be plenty. Overdoing it might be…uncomfortable. You might see about replacing the oat bran with other high fiber products, though.

6

A review by Robin (about halfway down on the first page of comments) gives some nutritional info, but Alton’s serving size recommendation is rather small (2-inch bar), so if the nutritional data is based on that serving size, I would probably double it for the type of bar I would cut for myself.

7

I occasionally make Ho-Made Breakfast Lumps-- A.K.A Food That Doesn’t Taste Good. I wanted something like a breakfast bar but
–More nutrious
–Cheaper
–Not so cookie-like that I eat ten a day.

Once on a whim I gave an oatmeal-box full to my vegetarian sister-in-law when she was depressed (dying mother) and wasting away. She claimed to have eaten them, and she asked for the recipe. So I happen to have it typed up…

At this time there’s no actual recipe for Ho-Made Breakfast Lumps (A.K.A. Food That Doesn’t Taste Good). Fortunately, when the finished product is not required to look or taste good, an actual recipe isn’t needed.

They were developed from an oatmeal cookie recipe with the oil/butter replaced by peanut butter, the sugar replaced by apple sauce, and random stuff plopped in to fine tune the texture and sweetness.

In theory everything is optional except the oats, peanut butter and some sweetener… still, here is a ‘non-actual’ recipe.

Instant Oatmeal 2 cups
Flour 1 cup
Peanut Butter 1.5 cups (or, what the hell, an 18 oz. jar)
Apple Sauce 1.25 cups
Eggs 2
Brown Sugar 1/2 cup (or to taste)
Salt 1 tsp
Baking soda 1 tsp
Vegetable Oil 2 tablespoons
Breakfast Cereal --add for desired texture and consistency.
Anything you want to throw in: milk, non-fat dry milk, nuts, orange juice, bacon, Ovaltine, bananas.

Combine the dry ingredients (except for cereal) and blend well. Use a big bowl.
Combine the wet ingredients. You can microwave the peanut butter to make it easier to blend. You can stir the eggs up before adding them.

Don’t forget to preheat the oven to maybe 375 degrees.

Combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients. Mix well; you don’t want any white bits of flour showing up in the finished lumps. You can use a mixer. Add some stuff (cereal, milk, sugar etc) to fine tune the consistency and sweetness. My guess is that a dry mix lasts longer without refrigeration, and a soft mix is easier to chew and more bread-like. Lots of puffed cereal keeps it from being too hard.

You can then form the batter into lumps, but it’s easier to cook it as a 1/2" layer in a shallow greased pan and then slice it up like brownies. Or you can spread the batter into a 1/2" layer on a greased baking sheet. Using a fork is a good way to spread it and shape it.

Bake for about 18 minutes at 375 degrees. The edges will start to brown.

That’s the non-actual recipe. It’s possible to add enough sweetener that they actually taste sorta good.

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The current issue of iRun magazine (a Canadian running mag) had three recipes for energy bars, complete with nutritional info: http://www.irun.ca/issues/article.php?id=84&intIssueID=6 (why can’t I do the link-as-a-word thingy anymore?)

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Becasue the Link-as-a-word-thingie is not available in Canada.

I keed!
Thanks for the linkies.

10

Well, you COULD do anything you like, of course. ;)But I wouldn’t recommend it, at least not without trying it as written first. Remember that sugar isn’t merely a sweetener in a recipe like this, but an important tool in moisture balance. Sugar is hygroscopic, meaning it actually pulls water out of the air into your food. Honey is too, but sugar much much more so. You may find that the bars dry out very quickly with honey, or are too tough. Maybe not though. I haven’t tried it. But I guess just keep it in mind as you experiment - it’s not always about taste, but chemistry, too.

11

I ran out to the store to buy a few ingredients and made the 3rd bar in this article. It’s cooling now as i speak.

THANKS!

12

So, Shirley, how are they?

13

The third recipe, cosmic bar, has been a HUGE hit with my kids, husband and friends!
It is easy as pie to make and takes very little time or effort!
THANKS!

14

I agree, most commercial nutrition bars are very heavy on the sugar, and it’s something I want to avoid.

When I make my homemade low-sugar granola, I use unsweetened applesauce as the sticker-together of the granola. I also add Splenda to make it taste sweeter, but add just a tiny smidge each of honey and canola oil to help it brown and crisp a bit. I don’t see any reason why this wouldn’t work with nutrition bars. In fact, I think I’ll try making some to test out this theory.

My granola is very good, and nowadays when I try commercial granolas, they taste like solid sugar to me.

15

Here’s an alternative suggestion, cottage cheese. This is really your best friend. It’s full of protein and you can get it from no-fat to 4%.

It’s a great source of protein and it mixes well with a lot. While not as convenient as a bar, you may find it easier to take a scoop or two and mix something in

16

So I tried Alton’s recipe with no sugar, oatmeal instead of oat bran, thawed frozen berries instead of dried ones, no apple juice (because of the liquid from the berries), flaxseed instead of wheat germ, and a splash of milk. So, basically, a ton of substitutions :). They turned out . . . okay. Edible. Not delicious, but they don’t have the artificial sweetness of Power Bars. Shirley, I think I’ll the same recipe you did this weekend, and thanks for the recommendations!

17

I made the first ones from the iRun recipes, the balls. Pretty good, but you should compare them to, say, a Clif bar, not a Snickers bar.