Homemade Snack Bars

It is getting colder quick. Today's high here in Northern Indiana was only 38F/3C. Brrr. Tomorrows high will be a bit warmer at 45F/7C.

Since I've been changing the way I eat to help control my pain, I have worked to eliminate processed sugar. I'm not a sweet snack person but more of a salty snack person. Eliminating processed sugar was a bummer, but not really that hard. Eliminating chip and crackers? Tough. But I do like sweets once in a while and when I came across LÄRABARs, they were perfect.

I was looking at them the other day and I thought "Hmmm...dates and nuts. Bet I can make that." I happen to have dates and cashews...so that's what I set out to do.

I had no idea what amounts to use, so I winged it. I tossed a few handfuls of cashews into the food processor and spun them around some. Then I added pitted dates until I guessed they looked like the right consistency.

Once it looked right, I spread the date and nut mixture onto some plastic. It is a plastic zip freezer bag that I cut open and use when making tortillas or sticky things like date and nut snacks. I shaped it into a rectangle-ish shape and cut it into bars. I guess they were just under a half-inch thick. I ended up with 16.

I had some snack sized zip bags that I thought would work well, but the bars being sticky wouldn't be easy to get in or out. So I wrapped each piece with wax paper before I put them into the zip bags. And being frugal...I'll just wash and reuse the snack bags. Yes I will!

How cool is that? Of course I had to taste test one, so I actually packaged up 15. I tossed all the snack bags into a gallon zip bag and put that into the refrigerator.

The whole process...including pitting the dates and stopping to sample one of the bars...took maybe an hour. Wrapping and bagging the bars took the longest. I don't know if I saved any money, but it was nice to make my own snack. I'm hoping to test out some different flavors with other nuts and dried fruit.

Have you tried making a homemade version of your favorite treat? Leave a comment below and let me know. If you have a link to a blog post or a recipe, I'd love to check it out!

Psalm 16:11 - You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Until next time – live simply and love abundantly! Grace and peace...

Ann’Re