maple syrup

Chocolate-Maple-Peanut Butter Energy Bars

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A great snack for energy that’s a mainstay of my active days.  Just be careful – one bar has 223 calories and 13% of your daily requirements of fat!

Ingredients

  • 4 cups quick-cook oats
  • 1 cup maple syrup
  • 1  cups peanut butter.
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 Tbsp cocoa powder
  1. Place oats in a large bowl.
  2. Put the maple syrup in a saucepan and add peanut butter.  Turn heat to low.
  3. Stirring regularly, melt the peanut butter into the maple syrup.  You may need to change the heat depending on your stove.
  4. When the peanut butter is melted, stir in cocoa powder and vanilla.
  5. Once mixed, immediately pour the maple-peanut butter mixture over the oats and mix thoroughly to coat.
  6. Place oats in a baking dish.  Place saran wrap over it and press down to spread it thoroughly so it fills pan evenly and is pressed down.
  7. Place in refrigerator for 2 hours.
  8. Cut into 16 bars.  Wrap and freeze them.

These need to be kept cool or they kind of fall apart.  Be sure to wrap them when transporting them around.

Taste wise these are delicious.  They’re also filling.  My way of using them is to pack one for a snack when I need a boost.  They’d also be great for really active days of exercise or hiking if properly wrapped.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Recipe – Energy Bars

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Still experimenting with this one here, but if you want quick – if not always well-adhering – energy bars these are good – and tasty!

I decided to come up with an energy bar recipe in order to get a good, energizing snack or pre-meal snack to work into my day.  I tend to eat 400-500 or so calorie meals, just to keep from pigging out, so I tend to have about 2 snacks a day (and yes, I brush my teeth then as well).  This was an experiment in creating a good, solid one.

Ingredients:

  • 4 cups oats
  • 1/2 cup rasins
  • 1 cup maple syrup
  • 1 cups peanut butter.
  • Dash vanilla (1/8 tsp)

Directions:

  1. Mix Oats, rasins in a bowl.
  2. Heat maple syrup, blend in peanut butter and vanilla.
  3. Pour over mix, stir until everything is coated.
  4. Put in pan, cover with saran wrap, push down to pack, chill in refreigerator.
  5. When it’s firm, move to the freezer for about 30 minutes.
  6. Cut into 16 bars.

Each bar has 242 cal, 6 grams protein, 3g fiber, and is about 13% of your fat and 8% of your saturated fat needs.  So they’re good, but I wouldn’t eat more than 1 or 2 a day, or use them if you need a caloric blast while working out.

Now the hard part here is not making them fall apart, so I’m messing with the ingredients   First two times I did it they held together, then they fell apart last time.  I’m debating a bit more maple syrup or leaving out the rasins to get better binding.  Ideas are appreciated!

Taste-wise these are insanely delicious.  Plus when my last batch fell apart, it just became pseudo-granola – which is great, but harder to pace yourself when eating.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.