Homemade Energy Bars

This morning, I ate two of these before my workout. They are raw, delicious, and easy to make. I adapted the recipe from Brendan Brazier's book, Thrive Fitness. If you haven't read Brendan's books, I recommmend them. He is a vegan triathlete and I like his recipes and nutrition suggestions because he recognizes that athletes (and people like me pretending to be athletes) need more protein than the average person.

Blueberry-Lemon Energy Bar

Put all this stuff in a food processor and grind it all up (smooth or chunky....your choice):
1 cup fresh dates
1/4 cup raw carob powder or smaller amount of raw cocoa. (I use Cocoa MoJo, a super yummy organic chocolate drink mix)
1/4 cup hemp seeds
1/4 cup salba (a white chia seed)
1/4 cup blueberries (fresh or mostly thawed)
1/4 cup ground flax seed
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1 T lemon zest
Juice of one lemon
Sea salt to taste
(These amounts don't have to be exact. A few more dates, a little less lemon juice.....no big deal)

Transfer from food processor to bowl and fold in 1/2 cup cooked or sprouted buckwheat and 1/2 cup frozen blueberries.

Form 12-15 little patties and put them on a rack to dry for while. They are pretty gooey at first.

I make these once a week and store them in an airtight container with waxed paper between the layers. I always eat them before workouts and sometimes after workouts or during the day.

Check your local food co-op for the hard-to-find ingredients (buy local!) but you can find this stuff on Amazon too.

Enjoy!