One of the perfect things you can do at home to spare yourself time during a busy week and still maintain a healthy lifestyle is prepare in advance. Sounds tricky? Not at all! There are so many delicious and healthy foods that you can make early enough and store in the fridge or freezer, that you will be amazed. One of my personal favorites are these wonderful homemade energy bars with dates. You can make them whenever you have time and freeze part of them single wrapped in food paper for when you are in a hurry, and have to grab some food in the last minute. Another plus is that they do not easily crumble or make stains, unless if you really try:)
Homemade energy bars recipes
The homemade energy bars recipe is not only suitable for a great breakfast or snack, but is perfect for you or your child’s food box and really easy to make and eat. Full with good carbs and protein, these energy protein bars will keep you full for a really long time. You do not need to be an athlete to enjoy them as addition to your regular diet.
They also allow a huge diversity of flavors and you can add almost everything and mix up, to change the taste or to increase certain nutrition. If you use very dry fruits, soak them for a few minutes in water or juice before adding them to the dough.
Healthy energy bars
This is very healthy homemade energy bars recipe and you can choose if you want to keep them vegan or not.
How to store energy protein bars for long time
These can keep for a week in the fridge in air tight container or for up to 3 months in the freezer.
You will need to cook about ¾ cup quinoa, in case you have already cooked it, you will have to use around 2,5 cups, let it cool before you start making these energy bars.
Ingredients list
In a food processors bowl mix the following:
2,5 cups cooked quinoa
1/2 cup pitted dates
3 tablespoons honey or in case you want to make it vegan you can use agave nectar
2 tablespoons ground flax seed
2 tablespoons coconut oil or olive oil
a pinch of salt
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
1/2 cup wholemeal spelt flour
1 cup mix of anything you like – nuts, dry fruits, chocolate chips or anything else that you prefer to add as flavor
sesame seeds, just enough to sprinkle on top.
Easy to follow recipe
Preheat oven to 175C (350 Fahrenheit). Cover a baking pan 15 on 30 cm (6 on 12 inch) with baking paper or spray with a little oil.
Combine all the wet ingredients in the bowl of a food processor, and process until smooth. Do not overdo it, the quinoa will stay a bit lumpy. Add the dry ingredients and mix well, you will get quite thick, similar to a cookie dough mixture. Spread it evenly using spatula in the backing sheet, sprinkle the sesame seeds on top and bake for about 25 minutes. Every oven is a bit different, so check to make sure it is baked all the way through. Let it cool in the baking dish and slice in 12 energy bars. Enjoy!