# Recipe For Energy Bars?



## Mtnbikenmama (Apr 1, 2004)

Anyone have a recipe for energy bars? I'm tired of busting out the $$$$ even at costco. I used to hike a lot before MTB and there was this old couple ( like in their mid 80's). They had their own recipe, wish I would have got theirs.  Oh well, may be you guys can help. Thanks.


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## Lucky (Jan 12, 2004)

Mtnbikenmama said:


> Anyone have a recipe for energy bars? I'm tired of busting out the $$$$ even at costco. I used to hike a lot before MTB and there was this old couple ( like in their mid 80's). They had their own recipe, wish I would have got theirs.  Oh well, may be you guys can help. Thanks.


I've got a recipe at home that I got from Mtntreker. They're pretty tasty, and if someone hasn't come up with it by tonight, I'll post it. Other that, I eat other stuff, like gorp (good 'ol rasins and peanuts). My favorite is raisins and almonds, but any dried fruit mix is good. Also, Nature Valley makes a chewy trail mix bar that's not overly processed. I buy them in bulk at B.J.'s for about $0.21 each. B.J.'s has 3lb bags of dried friut mix for under $7. Aside from the price, I've just about burned out on the taste of Clif Bars and PowerBars.

Kathy


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## singletracktara (Mar 25, 2004)

Yeah.. not to mention that the inventor of Powerbars just died of a massive heart attack at the age of 50!!!!!
Somewhat shakes the confidence on that one!


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## Mtnbikenmama (Apr 1, 2004)

*Yikes!*



singletracktara said:


> Yeah.. not to mention that the inventor of Powerbars just died of a massive heart attack at the age of 50!!!!!
> Somewhat shakes the confidence on that one!


Yah, my mil has been harping on us to stop eating the protein bars, all of them except cliff have transfatty acids. I guess she's right


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## dirtcrab (Feb 4, 2004)

Mtnbikenmama said:


> Yah, my mil has been harping on us to stop eating the protein bars, all of them except cliff have transfatty acids. I guess she's right


Aren't Power Bars mostly carbs?


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## -kelly- (Mar 11, 2004)

Here are 2 I like...

Power Bars 
Recipe By: "Backpacker's Cookbook

1/2 C Honey Or Molasses 
1/2 C Peanut Butter 
1 C Dry Milk, Non-Instant 
** Options ** 
Chocolate Chips 
Raisins Or Dried Fruit Bits 
Coconut 
Cashew Butter -- * 
Almond Butter -- * 

1. Kneed all ingredients together with your hands, adding enough milk 
powder to form stiff but not crumbly dough. Optional ingredients can be 
kneaded in as well. 
2. Shape into logs about 2-3 inches long and 1 inch in diameter. 
3. Roll in powdered milk, confectioner's sugar or coconut. 

Makes about 6. 
* May be used in place of peanut butter.

Chewy Granola Bars

You can make them your own by picking different ingredients to add in. Try using any combination of miniature chocolate chips, sunflower seeds, raisins, chopped dried fruits, candy-coated chocolate pieces, chopped nuts, etc. 

Ingredients:

4 1/2 cups rolled oats 
1-cup all-purpose flour 
1-teaspoon baking soda 
1-teaspoon vanilla extract 
2/3-cup butter, softened 
1/2-cup honey 
1/3 cup packed brown sugar 
2 cups miniature semisweet chocolate chips 

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Lightly grease one 9x13 inch pan. 
2. In a large mixing bowl combine the oats, flour, baking soda, vanilla, butter or margarine, honey and brown sugar. Stir in the 2 cups assorted chocolate chips, raisins, nuts etc. 
3. Lightly press mixture into the prepared pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 18 to 22 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for 10 minutes then cut into bars. Let bars cool completely in pan before removing or serving. 

Makes 3 doz.


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## MallieD (Apr 11, 2004)

singletracktara said:


> Yeah.. not to mention that the inventor of Powerbars just died of a massive heart attack at the age of 50!!!!!
> Somewhat shakes the confidence on that one!


Just noticed PowerBar's web site (the American Division) is down. Could just be a regular web site hosting glitch, but if I was paranoid it might make me wonder!


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## SSteel (Dec 31, 2003)

Mtnbikenmama said:


> Anyone have a recipe for energy bars? I'm tired of busting out the $$$$ even at costco. I used to hike a lot before MTB and there was this old couple ( like in their mid 80's). They had their own recipe, wish I would have got theirs.  Oh well, may be you guys can help. Thanks.


I have a recipe for power gel if you would like it.


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## catzilla (Jan 31, 2004)

Choco Chunk Peanut Butter Energy Bars

3 c. cardboard (cut into small, but still unchewable, pieces).
2 c. peanut butter flavored cardboard.
1 bottle rubber cement
1 bottle glue (this is purely for sniffing)
1 c. carboard flavored excriment cut into small chunks (for the "Choco Chunk" part).

Combine ingredients, cut into bar like shapes, and put into shiny foil packaging. Sniff the glue, stare at the left over shiny packaging, then come up with a ludicrious price and double it (if you feel like putting "Women's Specific" on the label, you can go ahead and double the price again). 

Voila!


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## donkey (Jan 14, 2004)

*Great recipe....*

....but what I really like is your signature! There must be a story behind that somewhere?



catzilla said:


> Choco Chunk Peanut Butter Energy Bars
> 
> 3 c. cardboard (cut into small, but still unchewable, pieces).
> 2 c. peanut butter flavored cardboard.
> ...


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## -kelly- (Mar 11, 2004)

SSteel said:


> I have a recipe for power gel if you would like it.


I would love it. I have been using honey with good result.


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## Mtnbikenmama (Apr 1, 2004)

*Absolutely!*



SSteel said:


> I have a recipe for power gel if you would like it.


I'm interested too. I'm sure it's better than the apple flavored tooth paste substance we tried! aka powergel.


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## AZtortoise (Jan 12, 2004)

here is a high protein, high carb, low fat recipe

3 bananas
4 eggs(you can do just egg whites if you like)
1 c. applesauce
2 c. old fashioned oats(NOT instant)
1 c. dry milk
1/2 c. soy protein powder
1/4 c. sugar or sugar substitute

mash bananas, add eggs and applesauce. mix well.(i use an electric mixer)

add dry ingredients. mix well.

use a 9" x 13" baking dish, spray with pan spray.

put all the stuff in and bake at 325 F for 30 to 35 minutes. after cooling, cut into squares, or whatever shape and size you like.

refridgerate.(keeps well on a ride though)

this makes a moist 'bar.' not dry and crumbly. if you want it drier reduce the applesauce. you could add nuts or raisins if you like. you could probably use honey or brown sugar too if you prefer that. this is a recipe you can play with a bit.

i used to bake this for 30 minutes but it kept sticking to the dish. i added 3 minutes and that was just right. it should not stick to the dish so if it does your first time just add more time next time.

enjoy!

Rita
P.S. these do not set heavy on the stomach as long as you limit the size.


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## dirtcrab (Feb 4, 2004)

kellyinutah said:


> I would love it. I have been using honey with good result.


If you like honey this one works well:

7 and 1/3 Tablespoons of Honey
3/4 teaspoons of Blackstrap Molasses
1/10 teaspoons (just shy of 1/8 tsp) of table salt

I like honey a LOT but I got tired of making this fresh all the time. So I now have a 5 gallon jumbo bottle of Cotsco honey in the cupboard that I continue to take heat about.

Here's a link to the article where I found it which explains all the nutritional mumbo jumbo that must be understood for it to magically work. 

http://www.dirtragmag.com/articles/article.php?ID=422&category=web_only


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## dirtcrab (Feb 4, 2004)

deleted for duplicate content


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## dirtcrab (Feb 4, 2004)

*Honey Gu recipe*

deleted for duplicate content


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## connie (Mar 16, 2004)

dirtcrab said:


> If you like honey this one works well:
> 
> 7 and 1/3 Tablespoons of Honey
> 3/4 teaspoons of Blackstrap Molasses
> ...


That's a great idea. Before my ride last night I just ate a big spoonful of honey out of the jar, and then a clif shot later in the ride and it worked great. I need to go and get one of those 5-shot squeeze bottles and case to attach it to my camelback and quit spending so much money on pre-packaged riding food! (And yes, my husband is going to laugh when I come home with a Costco sized jar of honey...)


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## -kelly- (Mar 11, 2004)

dirtcrab said:


> If you like honey this one works well:
> 
> 7 and 1/3 Tablespoons of Honey
> 3/4 teaspoons of Blackstrap Molasses
> ...


Thanks sooo much! The protein version even sounds good.


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## SSteel (Dec 31, 2003)

kellyinutah said:


> I would love it. I have been using honey with good result.


This is courtesy of some anonymous individual:

"In general, the important stuff in Power Gel is the 25g carbs, 45mg sodium, 35mg potassium, and the vitamins C and E.

The first food item I looked up in the database was Honey. Surprise!-it has a bunch of good carbohydrates and vitamins in it. Honey alone is nutritionally very close to my goal of home-brew power goop, but it lacks a bit of sodium and potassium. So where can I get a good source of potassium? Mush up a banana, maybe nuts?

Suddenly I find that molasses has a ton of potassium. If you can find "Blackstrap" molasses it has even more! As for the sodium, I'll just add some salt. So out of my research, here's the recipe:

Home-brew power goop:

7 and 1/3 Tablespoons of Honey
3/4 teaspoons of Blackstrap Molasses
1/10 teaspoons (just shy of 1/8 tsp) of table salt

Be sure to mix everything together well, and it should make enough to fill a 5 serving GU flask.

This recipe works nicely. You may see some bubbles on the surface of this stuff, but that is just a natural occurrence of the molasses. One thing really nice is that neither honey nor molasses needs to be refrigerated, so you can keep it in your pocket all day, and even use it the following week. I probably wouldn't go much past a week, but it should still be good.

The nutritional content approximates 25g carbs, 45mg sodium, 35mg potassium, with plenty of vitamins and minerals that you wouldn't get with the store bought stuff. Another nice thing about the honey recipe is that it is all natural. Honey comes from bees that get nectar from flowers. Maybe you've passed a honeybee hive on a trail, and just maybe there was a bee in there making the honey that you are going to use on your next ride! Ok, that's a stretch. Molasses is not actually any part of the four-legged mammal, but is refined from sugar cane. As Homer Simpson would say: "Mmmmm, suuuugggarrrrrr." Salt comes usually from salt mines, but you could always buy "sea-salt" and use that. I suppose "sea salt" comes from the sea, but with truth in advertising at the current lows, who really knows.

My experiment did not end at just the plain ol' goop. It was still raining out, so I thought back to something I read somewhere about a 4 to 1 carb to protein ratio. I guess that is supposed to be a good thing (Thanks Martha Stewart), so I made a recipe for that too.

Honey goop with a protein kick:

6 Tablespoons of Honey
5/8 teaspoons of Blackstrap Molasses
6 and 3/8 teaspoons of Soy Protein Isolate
1/16 teaspoons of salt
1-3 Tablespoons of water

Mix everything together in a cup, add water as needed to develop a nice 'goopable' consistency. Makes 5 servings.

I tried out some of this at the DINO 12-hour race, and it worked pretty well. The Soy protein gives it a nice kick. I wouldn't leave this one in the sun for too long though. Not that I've had any moss growing in it, but I would probably try to keep this one fresh.

Well now that my work is done, and I've freed the masses from cookie cutter carb-gels I would like to say that this in not the end, but merely the beginning. Yes, because these are just my recipes, and like the open source code of Linux, they are open for improvement and personalization. I haven't even started on anything with caffeine, but I imagine that you could substitute some espresso in for the water, or get wild with some ground up ginseng supplements.

There is also the issue of flavoring. Could normal coffee flavoring work, perhaps mix in some flavored Jell-O, or Kool-Aid mix. Or stay all natural and mix in some lemon or orange zest. How about a jalapeno or two? The possibilities are endless. "


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## dirtcrab (Feb 4, 2004)

SSteel said:


> This is courtesy of some anonymous individual:
> 
> "In general, the important stuff in Power Gel is the 25g carbs, 45mg sodium, 35mg potassium, and the vitamins C and E.
> 
> ...


Welcome to the thread!!! Like 6 or 7 posts ago.


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## Lucky (Jan 12, 2004)

catzilla said:


> Choco Chunk Peanut Butter Energy Bars
> 
> 3 c. cardboard (cut into small, but still unchewable, pieces).
> 2 c. peanut butter flavored cardboard.
> ...


How'd you manage to find the peanut butter Power Bar recipe, eh?
;^P

Anyway, here's the recipe I promised to post a day or two ago. I got the recipe from MtnTreker of NM who allowed me to taste one at a gathering a couple years ago. Very tasty. I confess I have yet to make them myself, so I don't know how easy or difficult they are to make. Here goes:

1/2 C raisins
1 3/4 C chopped dried figs
1 C dried apricots
1 C dried pitted dates
1/2 C peanut butter
1/2 C mini chocolate chips (editors note: mmmmmmmm!)
1/2 C sunflower seeds and/or pumpkin seeds
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 C coconut or cocoa powder

Put the raisins in a bowl and cover with boiling water for 10 min. Remove the raisins and put in a food processor, along with the rest of the dried fruits. Process until fruits are finely chopped. Add the peanut butter, choc. chips, sunflower seeds and cinnamon. (he adds a little honey, also). Mix well. If too dry, add some of the water from the raisins. Wet hands and roll into 1" balls. Roll the balls in the coconut or cocoa powder. Keep in freezer until ride day.

Kathy


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