Black Bean Surprise Bites

September 22, 2020September 23, 2020 / Amanda @fueling.veggie.athletes / Leave a comment

Happy Tuesday friends!

The old saying goes better late, than never, right?! I hope in this situation that is the case. 🙂

I promised both in person (before the pandemic) and on my Instagram months ago that I would share the final recipe my lab partner Gian & I developed in our Experimental Foods class last semester. So, I’m finally getting to that! 😛 If that’s all you are here for maybe just scroll to the recipe. 😆 But before you do enjoy this lovely hairnet photo.🤣

One of the 1st versions of Black Bean Surprise bites

I know that my semester is long over and I promise I did not forget about sharing the recipe! I just got sidetracked by many other things in my life from my development of an unexpected stress fracture in my foot to the beginning of my dietetic internship. Not to mention that going through life during a pandemic, extreme political division, and civil unrest has been tough, sad, and trying. 😦 But today is not the day to discuss all of those things, although I certainly can in a future post if there is interest.

I do plan to write about my stress fracture from a nutritional and running standpoint here, though, but also let me know in the comments or via e-mail if you want any posts of being a dietetic intern, being a dietetic intern during a pandemic, eating/cooking at home (because of the pandemic), work from home tips, etc.👇🏻 I’d really like to write posts here more than every month or two. So ideas are super helpful!

Anyway, let’s get to what you all really came here for, the recipe! It was interesting because we started the recipe development in class, but the class was moved to online after midterms due to COVID, so we were not able to do as many trials of the recipe as we would have liked. We are still pretty pleased with the final version and hope you are too!

Mixing everything in one of the early versions of the recipe.

The snack bites have hidden vegetables and legumes (sweet potatoes, kale, and black beans), but we don’t think you can even taste them. So they are perfect for picky eaters (just don’t tell them 🤐 )! And each 2 bite serving has ~7 grams of protein and ~6.5 grams of fiber! Who knew a vegan snack that tastes like an almond joy could be so healthy?! Black beans really are amazing! 😉 These are a great snack to add to your weekly meal prep rotation and the perfect lunchbox or midday treat! 🙂

Yield: 16 bites (8 servings)

Ingredients

1/2 can black beans

1/2 cup vegan chocolate protein powder (we used Garden of Life Organic Plant-Based Chocolate Sport Protein Powder)

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/3 cup coconut oil

1/4 cup turbinado sugar

1/4 cup semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips (we used Enjoy Life Dark Chocolate Morsels)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup water

1 sweet potato

1 bunch of fresh kale

13 Medjool dates, pitted

3/4 cup salted, slivered almonds

1/3 cup coconut flakes

4 teaspoons cinnamon

How to make Black Bean Snack Bites:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 Fahrenheit for at least 10 minutes.

2. Drain and rinse black beans in a large colander 3 times with tap water.Wash, peel, and cut sweet potatoes into bite sized pieces.

3. Boil the sweet potatoes under medium heat and a high flame on the stove top until soft (about 15 minutes).

4. Wash fresh kale under cold water and chop into small pieces.

5. Steam for 5-10 mins, or until kale is soft, but retains bright green color. Then set aside.

6. Remove pits from dates and chop them into smaller pieces.

7. Combine black beans, protein powder, cocoa powder, coconut oil, vanilla, sweet potatoes, dates and kale in the food processor.

8. Process at high speed until completely smooth, stopping once or twice to scrape down the sides if necessary. If the mixture is too dry add ~50 mL of water to the mixture.

9. Carefully remove the blade and stir in the chocolate chips and salted slivered almonds.

10. Spoon 1-2 tablespoons of mixture into paper cups and place into a 14 x 11 muffin pan.

11. Sprinkle cinnamon and coconut flakes onto the surface of the each piece.

12. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until set in the center.

13. Let cool for 15-20 minutes.

14. Remove cups from the pan. Serve immediately or store in the fridge.

15. Store leftover bites in the fridge in an airtight container, such as a Tupperware. They will keep for a few days in the refrigerator and even longer in the freezer. They taste best chilled!

Enjoy this quick, easy, and nutritious recipe! Let me know if you try it! And feel free to tag me on Instagram @fueling.veggie.athletes or e-mail me when you do!

Saturday snack #1: Banana Bites and a running update

February 21, 2015February 24, 2015 / Amanda @fueling.veggie.athletes / 5 Comments

Hello there friends! Sorry for the hiatus…again. I promise I was not hibernating. Although, the weather here has made me want to lately. 😦 I’ve just neglected blogging after a busy month of graduate school, work, observation hours (for my graduate program), working out, and occasionally socializing. 😛

Running update

Anyway, I was somehow convinced to run a 5k race this morning with my boyfriend outside, which is not my idea of hibernating! Luckily, today was the warmest day of the week at a whooping 20 degrees and I only needed two pairs of gloves to run outside. You would think after 8 years of high school and college cross country and track I’d be a pro at cold weather running, but that is not the case! I still dread it and sometimes don’t know how to properly dress for my runs…

Fortunately, I survived the race, had a bit of fun in the process, and only my face, hands, and feet lost feeling from the cold. 😛 I ran the race unofficially in 20 or 21 pain free minutes, which is great considering I haven’t run more than 10 miles per week or done any speed work since December because of my darn IT band…unfortunately my IT band hurts post race :(. On a happier note, my boyfriend who has been training more than me won! We thought he missed first place by a second or two because he was out kicked, but we were wrong. The race was chip timed and since he started further back he won. 🙂 This race has me excited for running again and yearning for my faster glory days in college. Maybe with some actual training I can prove to myself that my faster days are ahead of me, not behind me. Finger’s crossed that my IT band heals soon… I definitely need some time off and more strengthening and stretching because that race aggregated it. 😦 Hopefully a week or two does the trick so I can increase my mileage and train for races again.

Banana Bites

Now, I have a short recipe to share with all of you. Looking for a snack that is sweet, healthy, tasty, easy, and quick to make?! Look no further! Banana bites are your answer. You most likely have the ingredients on hand at your house. They are full of healthy fats, protein, and just the right amount of sweetness. They will keep for a few days in the freezer.

Yield: variable depending on how many bananas used (I made 8 bites)

Ingredients

1-2 bananas

1 tablespoon natural peanut butter

1-2 tablespoons plain Greek yogurt

1. Mix the peanut butter and Greek yogurt together on a plate

2. Chop the banana(s) into slices

3. Spread the Greek yogurt/peanut butter mixture onto half of the banana slices

4. Form sandwiches by using other half of the banana slices as the top slices

5. Put the banana bites into the freezer in a covered container and let freeze for approximately 2 hours.

6. Enjoy! Keep any leftovers in the freezer. They should keep for a few days.

Have a wonderful night friends and I hope you enjoy this simple, healthy snack! 🙂

Question of the day: Have you been running lately? If so inside or outside? Any fun races?

Tasty Tuesday #4: easy, peasy black bean salsa

August 12, 2014July 16, 2015 / Amanda @fueling.veggie.athletes / 3 Comments

Wow, it’s been way too long since I’ve posted a black bean recipe! Since black beans are one of my favorite foods and what inspired the name of this blog, I figured it was time for another black bean recipe. This black bean salsa is super easy to make, relatively healthy, and only takes about 5 minutes from start to finish. It would probably taste even better if you made your own salsa from scratch, but then it would take a little longer to make. This recipe is courtesy of my boyfriend and his sister. It will definitely be a part of our snack rotation here from now on. It tastes wonderful with tortilla or pita chips. 🙂

easy, peasy black bean salsa

ingredients:

1 can of organic black beans

2/3 cup of salsa (we used On The Border Medium Salsa)

steps:

1. Drain and rinse a can of black beans.

2. Put the uncooked and rinsed black beans and 2/3 cup of salsa in a food processor.

3. Puree the black beans and salsa until relatively smooth.

3. Store the salsa in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

While this salsa is delicious, I’d still have to say homemade black bean burgers are my favorite way to eat black beans. I posted a recipe for black bean burgers previously if any of you are curious . I’m thinking of making black bean brownies in the near future and featuring them on this blog, but we will see! I am always searching for new recipes using black beans so stay tuned. 😛 Have a great night everyone!

Have any of you ever had black bean salsa before? Also, do any of you have any recipes for homemade salsa you’d be willing to share with me? If so comment here or email me at blackbeanqueen@gmail.com.

Lollapalooza recap and What I Ate Wednesday (WIAW) #1

August 6, 2014July 28, 2015 / Amanda @fueling.veggie.athletes / 2 Comments

Good evening friends! Sorry for the several day hiatus from the blog, I was at Lollapalooza all weekend and had a test and final paper due for my summer class due yesterday (although it’s not like many people read this. haha). Regardless I am back! I hope all of you have had wonderful weekends. 🙂

Lollapalooza 2014 recap

Man, this past weekend was fun, crazy, and exhausting all at the same time! It was great to see my sister, my boyfriends sister, and a friend from college as well as some of my favorite artists though. It’s really difficult for me to pick my overall favorite act so I’m just going to share my favorite acts for each of the three days. 😛

Friday

As far as seeing artists, Friday was packed. It also rained on us once, but it was a very brief downpour so it wasn’t bad. Sunday is a different story though. We all saw many shows back to back and did a lot of walking back and forth between both ends of the park on Friday. We saw Temples, Bombay Bicycle Club, Jagwar Ma, Portugal. The Man, Chvches, Lorde, and Artic Monkeys. Jagwar Ma was my favorite act on Friday and they only have one album so I was lucky to hear all my favorite songs live. 🙂

The weirdest thing I saw all weekend was on Friday. This guy in front of us was wearing a skirt and had his BABY with him. He was dancing with the baby basically the entire time.The baby had a set of headphones thankfully, but I’m still not sure that it’s really a good place to bring a baby…This baby was super cute though and everyone around me was taking pictures so I’m not surprised they made the news . I thought I snapped a picture of the baby too, but apparently I didn’t save it so here’s a picture of the baby from ABC.

(Source: http://cdn.abclocal.go.com/content/wls/images/cms/080414-wls-lolla-7-img.jpg)

Saturday

The weather on Saturday was by far the best of all three of the days. It was warm and sunny the entire day. I saw The Districts, Jungle, The Temper Trap, Grouplove, and Foster the People. I was also supposed The Head and the Heart, and then Cut Copy or Calvin Harris. I went home early, though, with my sister who got a bad migraine during the festival. I felt so bad that she was not feeling well because she really wanted to see Calvin Harris, but thankfully no headaches for her Friday or Sunday!

Overall, what I liked a lot about Saturday was discovering two new bands (The Districts and Jungle) that I didn’t listen to before Lollapalooza. I think it’s a great thing when you got to a festival where you can discover new music and listen to some of your favorite acts all in the same day. My favorite act on Saturday was Foster the People. They sound great live and it was a fun and upbeat show. Also, they played all my favorite songs from their two albums so I was happy.

Sunday

Oh gosh, I cannot give a recap of Sunday without first talking about the endless rain. It rained four or five times throughout the entire day and just when you were starting to dry off it rained again, go figure. Many people embraced the rain at the festival by having mud fights dancing in the rain, other people found creative ways to stay dry such as hiding under picnic tables. By the end of the night no one had dry or clean clothes or feet! Grant Park also took quite the beating. I somehow did not take any pictures of the mud, but I did manage to get a picture of our muddy feet. 😛

Despite the rain we stayed the whole time and saw all the acts we planned on seeing. We saw NONONO, London Grammar, Cage the Elephant, The Avett Brothers (from afar), Young the Giant, and Skrillex. Picking my favorite act on Sunday is tough and nearly a tie between Cage the Elephant and Young the Giant. I’d have to say I enjoyed Cage the Elephant just a little bit more though. The crowd was fun and I love that the lead singer embraced the rain and was all muddy just like the rest of the festival goers. I’m just sad they didn’t play my favorite song (Hypocrite), but it was still good and it seems like they stuck to all the fan favorites. We ended the night with Skrillex and while I can confidently say I am not a huge fan and will probably never see him again, but he put on a cool light show that I snapped a picture of.

All in all it was a good end to a crazy and fun weekend with some of my favorite people. 🙂 Also, if anyone wants a hilarious recap of Lollapalooza this buzzfeed article: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mattbellassai/28-things-you-learn-at-lollapalooza

What I ate Wednesday (WIAW) #1

Now, on a completely different note from Lollapalooza, I wanted to do a WIAW post. I’ve seen a lot of other bloggers do this and I think it’s a great idea! It’s a good way to see how other people eat and to possibly get ideas for recipes or snacks. I’d especially love to see what other runners and vegetarians eat. It was tougher than I expected to take a picture of everything I ate today, but maybe that’s because I snack a lot. I’m more of a snacker/ several mini meals a day than a three meals a day kind of girl.

What I do want to emphasize now is that WIAW is a no judgment zone. I am not here to judge what others are eating and I do what to be judged by what I ate today. Everyone eats differently. I am a vegetarian that still eats eggs and dairy products and you might be a vegan or someone that eats meat. I respect that so please respect me back! Also, this is just a snapshot or peak into how I eat on a daily basis, not how I eat everyday. We all have good and bad days. As a person who strives to eat healthy, I know that it is a process and I believe in the motto “everything in moderation”. Some days you eat a lot processed foods or chocolate chips out of the bag. That is ok. 😉 Without further ado, here’s what I ate:

~9:15 am. A quick granola bar before grocery shopping (they say to never grocery shop on an empty stomach!)

11:00 am. Egg in the holes, Silk light vanilla almond milk, and coffee for a late breakfast.

1:30 pm. A short run with my boyfriend! My GPS watch would not connect for this run so this is his black watch. haha. Looks like the ol’ IT band is healed and I can start building up my mileage again! 🙂

3 pm. A super late, but light lunch. This is a combination of mixed berries, Oikos vanilla Greek Yogurt, milled Flax seed, and some vegan maple granola. (here’s the recipe I posted a few days ago if anyone is interested: https://blackbeanqueen.wordpress.com/2014/07/31/thursday-treats-vegan-maple-granola/) . I also had a couple handfuls of dry cereal.

4 pm. Some caffeinated tea as an afternoon pick me up. I highly recommend Trader Joe’s mango black tea!

5:15 pm. Snack number two was nearly an entire bag of Simply Salted popcorn. It’s basically the only microwave popcorn I’ll eat. It’s only about 100 calories for an entire bag and it’s not mini, plus it doesn’t have a million ingredients like other popcorns.

7:30 pm. For dinner I had last night’s leftovers. It’s a Mexican pasta with beans. It has kidney beans, tomatoes, sweet peppers, pasta, and spices. I’ll try to share the entire recipe in the future.

I hope all of you have great nights. 🙂

My question for all of you: If you have ever been to a music festival, such as Lollapalooza, what is the weirdest thing you have seen there?

Young, hungry, and on a budget (in Chicago)

July 13, 2014August 12, 2014 / Amanda @fueling.veggie.athletes / 10 Comments

The old saying goes “you live and you learn” and that’s exactly what this blog post is about. I have only been in the city for a week, but I have have already learned some things and know fully well that I will keep learning more. This post is a work in progress. Expect more posts and tips on city living, (mostly) healthy eating, and having fun without breaking the bank. Expect to learn as I learn! My boyfriend and I are both recent college grads with more schooling ahead for both us so we will definitely need to stick to a budget! 😛

My tips (so far) for having fun and (mostly) healthy living on a budget in the city:

1. Stock up on essentials, especially if there are sales. Case in point: you will always need toilet paper and baking ingredients such as flour. We stocked up on those things. Now the rest of our shopping trips for the next month or so will be solely food!

2. Don’t buy groceries at convenience stores such as Walgreens. Convenience stores often sell grocery items, such as peanut butter, for more than the local grocery store. It is worth the slightly longer walk or bus trip in the city to go to an actual grocery store.

3. Buy groceries on a weekly basis. Only buy what you plan on eating for the week with the exception of sales on any essential items such as baking ingredients. This tip is also in part because when you walk most places or rely on public transit you can’t carry ten bags of groceries home. Before moving to Chicago I would only grocery shop a few times a month and really stock up on each trip. Unfortunately every once in a while I would buy more produce than I could eat before it went bad. Wasting food makes me sad in general and on a budget I really don’t want to waste so hence weekly grocery shopping. Make a detailed list before shopping and try to stick to it…

4. …BUT also shop the sales/ be flexible. What I mean by this is say you planned on buying whole wheat bagels in a particular grocery trip, but only whole wheat English muffins are on sale. Buy the English Muffins instead. Make a detailed grocery list, but also go to the store with an open mind and be willing to make substitutions in order to save a few bucks.

5. Check out the Farmer’s Market.One way to buy produce on a weekly basis is to checkout your local Farmer’s market. While they can be pricey for some items they also have some great deals. Also, for me personally, I am willing to shell out a few extra bucks on occasion to support local farmers and eat food that hasn’t been grown in a different country and shipped thousands of miles to our local supermarket.

I went to one yesterday and they had a lot of great deals on vegetables and then my boyfriend and I each picked one “splurge item”. For me it was homemade fruit jam and for him it was a homemade salsa. We got a delicious loaf of bread and all the produce we need for the next week minus a bag of carrots and perhaps some fresh fruit!

6. Check out free or reduced price events in your area. In Chicago there are a lot of free concerts and outdoor movies throughout the summer! At Taste of Chicago Thursday we saw a free Janelle Monae concert which was cool. She was talented and is relatively popular- she was an act at Bonaroo a month ago. There are also several relatively cheap events such as Wicker Park Fest in a few weeks that we plan to check out. I hear Millennium Park has free concerts each week too so that will be worth checking out!

7. Look for deals at your local restaurants and bars. As a person who recently moved to Chicago I am not yet sure which places have to best deals, but know I will be searching! I will be on the lookout, especially, for deals on beers and pizza, but I’ll keep my eye on healthier deals too. 😛 When you know the deals maybe limit yourself to going out to eat or to grab drinks on the nights/days with deals (if this is a reasonable compromise).

8. Make your own snacks. Snack items such a protein bars, chips, snack mixes, etc. are considered convenience items so they often charge a lot for them. In the long run you can save your wallet and your health by making your own. All making snacks cost is a little time if you use ingredients you always have on hand (for example most of my snacks use oatmeal and nuts/seeds since I always buy those things in bulk). I tend to chose snacks that are simple to make, made with ingredients already in my kitchen, and are not very time consuming.In the last week I’ve made banana oat protein bars, granola, and peanut butter energy bites as snacks for my boyfriend and I to eat in addition to fresh produce, hummus, and popcorn.

For anyone interested here’s the recipe for peanut butter energy bites which I adapted from the Oatmeal Nut Butter Balls recipe on www.pbfingers.com– a blog that I highly recommend to others who want some healthy recipe ideas (http://www.pbfingers.com/2013/08/15/no-bake-oatmeal-nut-butter-balls/). 🙂 They are super easy and only take about ten minutes to make.

Peanut Butter Energy Bites

yield: approximately 10-12 bites

Ingredients:

1 cup uncooked oatmeal

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup milled flax seed

1/3 cup honey

dash of cinnamon

dark chocolate chips (if desired)

1. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl. Once combined roll into balls.

2. Stick the bites in the refrigerator and grab one whenever you want a quick snack!

(9. One last money saving tip!) Instead of going out for pizza and beer on a Saturday night make a frozen Gino’s East pizza and buy your own beer. It’s PRACTICALLY the same thing, right?! 😛 I’m actually KIDDING, even on a budget you should go out sometimes, but that was definitely my boyfriend and I last night!

We were too lazy to brave the pouring rain/crappy conditions and go to an actual bar last night.We plan on checking out some of the local watering holes later this week!

Well, I hope you all have a great rest of your Sunday. 🙂 It’s time for us to get a workout in, get the rest of our groceries for the week, and who knows what else. 😛

What are your favorite ways to have fun on a budget?

Tasty Tuesday #1- my favorite snacks

July 1, 2014July 16, 2015 / Amanda @fueling.veggie.athletes / 4 Comments

Good evening! I don’t know about you, but I just finished watching the USA vs. Belgium World Cup game. It was a slow moving game until it went into extra time where both teams were 0-0 initially. Belgium scored twice during the extra time and USA scored once at minute 106. Belgium will advance to the quarter finals against Argentina. What a heartbreaker for the USA, but I am still proud of my country and they fought hard. I am happy I was able to watch the game live! I have a summer class once a week on Tuesdays and for the last few weeks I’ve had to commute from home to class for a total commute time of nearly 4 hours. I got out of class early today and my commute took less time than normal so I was able to catch the game! This is my last week of a long commute though, thankfully! I move to my apartment this weekend and I will be much closer to my class there. 🙂

My favorite snacks

I am a big fan of snacks. In fact, I LOVE to snack! I’m more of a grazer than a three meals a day kind of girl. I’d rather eat smaller meals/snacks more often during the day. The amount of meals/snacks I eat in a day really just depends on what workouts I am doing and how my body feels. For tasty Tuesday I thought it would be fitting to discuss something food related so, I thought I would share five of my favorite snacks right now. I try to eat healthy most of the time and my snacks reflect this. I do think that moderation is key and a little dessert or processed food every once in a while shouldn’t hurt or jeopardize your health though. 😉

1. Smoothies. I absolutely love smoothies! I typically make mine with fresh or frozen fruit, vanilla or plain Greek yogurt, and almond milk. I also like to freeze my smoothies and eat them with a spoon, kind of like ice cream. I’ve been eating frozen smoothies a lot lately. 🙂 I am going to eat this cherry smoothie later, once it is frozen:

2. Hummus with pretzels and/or carrots. I also love hummus and I’ve been eating Sabra original and Tribe sweet red pepper or original lately. Both brands are delicious, but I really need to learn how to make my own hummus because it is probably a lot cheaper.

3.Greek yogurt with a tablespoon of dark chocolate chips. When I’m craving something sweet this is my go to snack. It tastes especially good if you put the Greek yogurt and dark chocolate chips in the freezer for a bit. My favorites are Oikos vanilla or plain Greek yogurt and Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips.

4. Homemade energy bars. My current favorite homemade energy bar is the banana oat energy bar from the Runner’s world cookbook. I also really like homemade energy bars with peanut butter such as the ones I made and posted here on this blog last Saturday.

5. Popcorn. Most microwave and bagged popcorn are high in fat and full of unrecognizable ingredients which is unfortunate because popcorn is delicious and can be healthy. Thankfully, if you pop your own in an air popper you can turn it into a healthy snack. I typically eat air popped popcorn plain or with a little salt or cinnamon sugar. As far as microwave popcorn goes, Orville Redenbacher’s Simply Salted is the most “natural” I could find in terms of unrecognizable ingredients. I believe it just has popcorn, oil, and salt and I eat it sometimes instead of air popped. I also enjoy an occasional bag of microwave kettle corn.

What are your favorite snacks right now? Also, any suggestions on toppings for air popped popcorn?

Homemade energy bars- made with recognizable ingredients!

June 28, 2014September 26, 2019 / Amanda @fueling.veggie.athletes / 3 Comments

There’s one thing you need to know about runners if you do not already, and that is that we like to eat and we tend to eat a lot. Since runners burn a lot of calories they can afford to eat a lot- they need to eat a lot. Runners and everyone for that matter, should eat quality, nutritious, and mostly unprocessed foods to fuel their workouts. A lot of us live an “on the go” lifestyle that can make this tricky. When we are hungry, on the go, and are in one of those “ we need a snack and we need it RIGHT NOW” moods a store bought energy or protein bar is a top choice. This is because they are readily available, easy to eat, and we usually think of them as healthy because they are marketed that way. Now I am not saying that all store bought energy bars are unhealthy, but a lot of them have long ingredient lists and several unrecognizable ingredients. Long ingredient lists imply that the food item is highly processed. Case in point, here are two bars I found around my house today and their respective ingredient lists:

I don’t know about you, but I am not even sure what sodium hexametaphosphate or natural flavor even are! And the vegetable oil in the bar pictured on the left (Quaker protein baked bars) has hydrogenated soybean and/or sunflower seed oil which is a source of trans fat- YUCK! Of the two bars pictured, the one on the right (a Clif Bar) would be the healthier choice because it does not have hydrogenated vegetable oil. Both bars have that mystery natural flavors ingredient though…

While I myself have eaten store bought energy bars on many occasions, the healthiest (and hopefully tastiest) option is to make your own! In the long run making your own can also save money because energy bars tend to be expensive. I figured now was a good time to experiment in the kitchen because right now it is summer, so I have time, and I am sidelined with a case of IT Band tendonitis and am unable to run for a bit (more on this later probably) Sad smile . Eating healthy while injured is just as important, if not more so, than when running high mileage. So, I am here today to share a healthy energy bar recipe I made that was inspired and adapted from the coconut-almond energy bars recipe in the Runner’s World cookbook (pg. 44). It is made of ingredients that I recognize and are usually on hand at my house. As an added bonus they are still easily portable just like store bought ones!

Peanut butter, fruit, and oat energy bars

1.5 cups old fashioned oats, 1/4 cup cashews, 1/2 cup sunflower seeds, 1/4 cup raisins, 1/4 cup craisins, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, a 12 ounce bottle of honey, and 1 cup of natural peanut butter ( I used Smucker’s creamy).

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8x 8 glass baking dish with cooking spray. In a large bowl combine the old fashioned oats, cashews, sunflower seeds, raisins, craisins, and vanilla extract and set aside. In a smaller bowl, combine the bottle of honey and cup of natural peanut butter and microwave for one minute on high power. Mix the honey and natural peanut butter together until combined and then add to oat mixture in the larger bowl. Mix together and once mixed pour into the 8 x 8 glass baking dish. Bake for 20 min or until the bars start to turn golden, but still have somewhat soft centers (may take longer or shorter depending on your oven). Let cool before cutting. I made 16 bars. Put cooled bars in a Tupperware or other covered container. If you used natural peanut butter store them in the refrigerator.

Keep in mind you can use any nut butter, dried fruit, seeds, or nuts that you would like. Making homemade energy bars proved to be easy and fun so I will definitely be making these again!