Homemade Larabars

Have you ever gotten home from a hard workout and thought to yourself, "ugh, I have to cook something and that is going to take forever and my trainer said I'm supposed to eat some carbs within 10 minutes of working out"? I know I have! I keep these around for just that reason. They are made with real food so I don't have to worry if I'm eating a bar with a bunch of extra junk in it. Also, these are so much cheaper to make yourself than to buy the ones in the store. The time it takes to make these is also less than it would take you to drive to the store. Pretty awesome huh!

(Shown here is chocolate cherry)

Here is a recipe for the base then you can add other ingredients to make whatever flavor you want.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup almonds
• 1 cup pitted dates
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients in your food processor and blend until it is in tiny pieces. Almost the consistency of almond butter but still a little grainy.
2. Scoop mixture into a small bakewear dish, approx 4x6 in., and press firmly to all sides.
3. Cover and place in the refregerator for a couple hours then remove and cut into bars.

*Try changing up the nuts and using cashews, pecans, pepitas, sunflower seeds, or even a mixture of several ones.

*To make chocolate bars add 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa, or more to taste.

*Try adding different dried fruits such as apricots, raisins, cherries (mmm chocolate cherry would be good)

*If you are going to add raisins or cherries, blend the other ingredients until well combined, then add the raisins or cherries and pulse a few times to incorporate.

*The key is to keep the nuts to dried fruit ratio 1:1