We are week 1 into our Eat Good and Get Fit Challenge and looking back at my week I realized that my biggest downfall, apart from getting 8 hours of sleep a night, was not eating all my meals within 5 hours of each other. Certainly a surprise to me, I mean, c’mon, that does not seem hard to accomplish at all! Well, apparently for me, it is! Especially on the weekends when we try to catch up on life.
I decided I needed some sort of portable “go to” snack that I can keep handy which does not need to refrigerated.
I have been making homemade DIY larabars for a while now, but now that I am “zoning”, the recipe needed some balancing. The old recipe I followed was essentially 3 parts dried pitted dates to 1 part nuts – with some occasional fun additions like shredded coconut and chocolate chips.
Following that basic outline, here is what I came up with.
“Zonemade” Protein Larabars
I measured out the ingredients to make 10 zone blocks worth of goo.
- 20-25 dates [6-7 dates = 30g C - 3g fiber = 27 net C. I needed 18 C/serving so I did 4-5 dates/serving depending on how big they were]
- 15 almonds [3 per F block * 5]
- 7.5 tablespoon of Bob’s Red Mill Flaked Coconut, Unsweetened [1.5 tbsp per F block * 5 = 7.5 tablespoons]
- 2.75 scoops of Optimum Nutrition Whey Gold Standard Double Chocolate protein powder [1 scoop = 24g P]
I started by adding a few tablespoons of water to the coconut because it seemed really dry, I let that absorb until the coconut got a little “mushy”.
I then added the dates to the food processor and pulsed them into a moderate mush. Next I added in the coconut and almonds and blended it some more.
The protein powder was added in last, and I blended the sh!t out of it! I added a little more water as it blended until I got a nice sticky consistency and the protein powder was no longer powder (waited until I didn’t see any more ‘dryness’). I was very careful with how much water I added – I didn’t want to lose the dates stickiness and make the mixture (sorry for this reference if it makes you think of what it makes me think of) “loose”.
Finally, I layed out some plastic wrap and dumped the mixture on it and smooshed it together sort of like rolling sushi.
Unwrap, cut it into 5 pieces and wrap them individually for five 2 block snacks!
The Verdict?
They are pretty tasty! All the protein powder can give them a slightly “dry taste” here and there if you don’t get the moisture right. Overall? They are easy convenient little sweet tasty snacks.
I should note that I would prefer and suggest to get ones protein from ‘real foods’ – but skipping a meal vs. these little tasty treats? I choose these little beasties!
PS: I can’t remember the brand of dates I used, but I got them at Costco.
