Power Bars -- Power to the People

RAW SUPERFOOD 'POWER' BARS

I realized I had many ingredients on hand that seem to fall into the category of 'superfood' -- that would be food that packs a real nutritional punch. I thought it would be fun to throw a bunch of stuff into the food processor and see what came out the other side. We're on our third batch this week, so needless to say, they seem to be very popular in our house. They are a little high in sugar because of the raisins and dates, but they go down easy, are packed with protein (and fiber, both of which help regulate blood sugar levels), phytonutrients, and deliciousness, and are very quick and easy to make.

ingredients:

1/2 cup organic flame raisins (but any kind of seedless raisins would be pretty much equivalent)

1/2 cup pitted honey dates (that means the pit has already been removed, unlike seeded grapes which mean the grapes have seeds. go figure.)

2 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil

1/4 to 1/2 tsp sea salt (some salts are 'saltier' than others, some tongues like salt more than others)

1 tbsp cinnamon

1/2 cup pecan meal

1/2 cup blanched almond meal

1/2 cup raw cashews

1/4 cup flax seeds, finely ground (aka linseeds)

2 tbsp salba seeds, whole or ground (aka chia seeds)

2 tbsp maca root powder (they now sell this at bulk barn)

2 tbsp hemp protein powder

2 tbsp raw cacao powder (or cocoa powder)

1 tbsp acai powder

1. using a food processor, puree the raisins and dates (check for random pits before throwing the dates in the food processor)

2. add nuts, seeds, salt, and cinamon, and whirl.

3. add maca, hemp powder, cacao or cocoa, and acai, and mix

4. add coconut oil

pulse until everything is finely and even chopped, and can easily be encouraged to clump together. Press the mixture into a square pan and chill it in the fridge for a couple of hours.

I cut it into 32 pieces and then put them into an airtight container in the fridge. They store well. Who am I kidding? They never last long enough to worry about it.

If you want to skip the maca, hemp, or acai, add the equivalent in extra cocoa, or almond meal.

If you want to use only raisins or only dates, substitute the one for the other. Apricots would probably work too, but stick to unsulphured ones. Hmm. Pistachio and apricot next time?

You can safely skip the salba without affecting the texture enough to worry.

Other nuts are fine to try, although some hard ones (eg whole almonds) can be tricky to work with.

Yummy. My 2 1/2 year old son seems to be in love with them. Then again, he's also been known to pick up the occasional cigarette butt in the park and put that in his mouth.