Thursday, May 12, 2011

Caffeine protein chocolate mocha bars

I woke up on tuesday morning, and just felt like making bars. I'm not sure why. Maybe I was tired of all the store bought crap that I had been eating for the last week or so. I'm not really sure. Anyways, at 7:30 am I was rocking the food processor, and making a lot of noise. Neighbours were probably upset.
I was meeting up with someone to ride at 11:00, so I brought along a few extra, and then this person requested the recipe. Hence the blog post.

Anyways, these bars turned out really well. Disclaimer: These are wicked bars for the last 2 hours of a long ride. They are the "anti bonk" bar, if ever there was one. These are not a "grab one on the way to yoga because your kinda hungry" bar. Be warned.

Ingredients:
-2 cups loose dates (buy the cheap ones)
-1 cup almonds
-1/2 Cup shredded Coconut (I used unsweetened)
-1/2 Cup Chocolate covered espresso beans
-2 Cups raw oats
-4 big scoops of chocolate protein powder
-1/2 Cup milk powder
-2 to 4 espresso shots (if you use 4 or more, you might need to increase the milk powder, and oats)
-2 tbsp cocoa powder
-1 tbsp cinnamon
-2 tbsp maple syrup, or honey

Directions
1. Grind the almonds, or just sliver them on a cutting board

2. Put the dates into a food processor. If you don't have one, just cut them up, and then smash them with a super solid fork. This is a good strength workout.

3. Start adding all the ingredients. Order doesn't really matter. Stir until everything is worked in. You want them to be sticky, but not too much liquid. If this is the case, add more of the powdered milk, oats, and even some more protein powder. I don't think you'll have the problem of it being too dry, but if you do, add some honey, or some more dates.

4. Request the help of a friend to cut pieces of plastic-wrap, and make them into bars, about 50-60 grams each. Proceed to roll them into bar shape, then toss whatever you don't want to take with you today, into the freezer.

I made about 15 bars with this recipe. Cost per bar works out to about $1 each. About 300 Cal each, 12 gram protein, and some caffeine, to keep you going :)
Enjoy.