Homemade LARA Bar-Style Snacks

(This is a recipe and article I pulled together for the newsletter at Matilda's school. We've been eating a lot of these little goodies.)

When the moment calls for something sweet you can skip the candy aisle and have this wholesome indulgence instead. Many consider LARA bars one of the very best energy bars on the market because they are made from a short list of unprocessed real food ingredients. Not just for athletes, these bars are a great all-natural snack for kids, too, meeting the wide range of dietary restrictions on today's playground. A downside to LARA bars, however, is their cost. Each bar has only 3-4 ingredients of nuts, dried fruit and spices, so with a little research and experimentation in the kitchen we’ve started making our own version at home. Along the way, I also discovered that shaping them into little truffle-sized balls was the perfect portion for a treat.

The combinations for these are endless as you can vary the dried fruit, use raw nuts or toasted, and add spices or flavor extracts. Getting kids cooking always increases the chance that they will try a new food. So get their fingers in the mix too as this is an especially fun and messy recipe!

LARA-style Truffles: Chocolate Fudge

1/2 cup dates

1/2 cup walnuts

2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp coconut oil (or olive oil will do)

unsweetened shredded coconut for dusting (optional)

Place the dates in a food processor and pulse until processed to a paste. Transfer paste to a medium bowl (don’t clean processor). Add the nuts to the processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add the nuts, along with the cocoa and oil to loosen the mixture, to the bowl with the fruit paste. Use clean hands to knead the nuts into the paste. Keep squishing, just like play-dough!

To make truffles, scoop out a small spoonful of the sticky mixture and roll it between your hands to form a ball. You can also dust the finished balls with shredded coconut which will make them less sticky to handle and more durable to travel. (These will inevitably end up in a plastic baggie in the bottom of your go-bag.) You can also form bars by placing the entire mixture in plastic wrap, smushing it to form a large bar, chill in the fridge, and then slice into individual sized servings.

Here are a few other variations to try:

Very Cherry: 1/4 cup chopped dates, 1/4 cup dried cherries, 1/3 cup pecans 1/8 tsp cinnamon

Apricot Almond: 6 Tbsp dried apricots, 2 Tbsp dates, 1/3 cup almonds