Travel Friendly Energy Bites Recipe
By the time Thanksgiving rolls around, I will have been on the road almost every weekend for two months. The life of a debate coach is a crazy one. Toss in the food blogging shenanigans at the International Food Bloggers Conference (IFBC), and I feel like I am gone more than I am home.
However, with time changes and quick layovers and late nights, sometimes I find myself without a healthy option for a quick bite. So I have been playing with a base recipe for granola bars that a friend gave me on a handwritten notecard. I modified it a bit to play with different flavors and hopefully amped up the nutritional profile just a bit.
Play around with what you choose to mix in and what nut butter you want to play with. This recipe makes about 36 1" by 1" squares but you can size it up however you want. The nutritional information below are for the specific name brands I used. Feel free to request the names if you want them or calculate your own nutritional stats.
Energy Bites
Yields: 36 bites
- 1/2 cup almond butter
- 3/4 cup brown rice syrup
- 2 tbsp cane sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup reduced-fat unsweetened coconut shreds
- 1/2 cup dried goji berries
- 1/4 cup ground flax seeds
- 1/4 cup hulled hemp seeds
- 1/4 cup white sesame seeds
- 1 1/2 cups gluten-free oats
1 scoop Garden of Life protein powder
Combine brown rice syrup, almond butter, vanilla extract, and cane sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to a slow boil over medium heat and then reduce the heat. You want to make sure the nut butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved.
Combine coconut shreds, goji berries, flax meal, hemp seeds, sesame seeds, oats, and protein powder. Pour in liquid mix and stir until combined. I tend to knead the mixture by hand towards the end to make sure everything is combined.
Grease a 9X9 baking pan or use wax paper (I do both). Put "dough" into the pan and press it flat. Let harden (I toss it in the fridge to speed up the process). Remove from pan, cut into squares, and wrap in wax paper.
Per serving: 90.6 calories, 3.7 grams of fat, 11.8 grams of carbs, 1.6 grams of fiber, 2.5 grams of protein
Full recipe: 3263 calories, 134 grams of fat, 425 grams of carbs, 57 grams of fiber, 89 grams of protein