Recipe: DIY fuel bars

I think Bugaboo could eat me out of house and home with her ferocity for Lara bars or Picky Bars and the cost to keep them in the house in ready supply.  So... why buy them (or any bar that hefts a heavy price) and why not make your own for a fraction of the cost?  Also, getting to control the ingredients and make fuel organic is a big bonus for me.  (Especially if I'm going to share them with my little running partners.)

 Bugaboo has named them "Running Cookies" because she only gets one when we are out on a run together.

Outrunning The Rain's "Running Cookies"

• 1 Cup dry (old fashioned) oats
• 2/3 Cup coconut flakes
• 1/4 Cup Pumpkin Seed Protein Powder (or wheat germ or other dry ingredient of your choice)
• 2 Tablespoons Chia seeds
• 1/4 Cup cocoa powder (instant coffee might be a good substitute.)
• 10 ounces Medjool dates (without pits)
• 1/4 Cup dried fruit (such as cranberries or cherries... whatever you enjoy)
• 1 Tablespoons coarse salt (or more. 2T will taste salty, but I use that much because I sweat a lot...  If you don't sweat much or don't want to taste salt, try just 1T.)
• 1/2 Cup Peanut butter (I prefer crunchy, but creamy is fine.)
• 1/3 Cup Honey
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla

If your food processor won't be temperamental with you, throw the pit-free dates in and coarsely chop them up.  My ancient machine prefers I do that first before adding them into the mix.  

Mix dry ingredients with the dates and pulse together in food processor.  Then add in wet ingredients (p.b., honey and vanilla.) and mix together.

The mixture should be like a thick cookie dough.  (If it's too dry, the bars will fall apart on your run and you'll have a baggie full of crumbs.  If it's too wet, you'll have a gooey mess and be sucking the "fuel" off your fingers.  Eww.

Press the mixture into an 8x8 glass baking dish and refrigerate overnight.  I like to score the pressed mixture so that it's easier to cut the cold dough and pry out the bars for the next morning's run.

After they have refrigerated, store in air tight container in refrigerator.  I don't know how long you'd want to keep them around, but I usually eat mine up in about 2 weeks, depending on the miles covered in each week.  I like to eat one pre run and then again every 3 miles or every 30-40 minutes... which ever happens first, I suppose.)

It's a forgiving recipe that can have substitutions and lots of combinations, but this is the ratios that have worked for me and been easily transportable on a half marathon.  I put the bars in a zip lock baggie and carry them in my flip belt.

Mixture pressed into an 8x8 pan before being placed in the fridge. 

I hope you enjoy them!
Do you make your own fuel/running food?  I'd love to hear your recipes!

Product Review and GIVEAWAY: PROBAR

PROBAR sent me some of their CORE Protein Bar to sample and review... and the best part?  To give away!!


PROBAR has this to say about their CORE bar:

Looking for a protein bar that resembles nature rather than a science experiment? Good. Because we've packed 20 grams of plant protein and plenty of real, recognizable ingredients into this bar. And it does more than build your strength – it boasts chia seeds for hydration and recovery too.

Well, let me tell you a little bit more about them.  

Flavors include:

Cookie Dough

Peanut Butter Chocolate

Brownie Crisp

Mint Chocolate

As you can see, the bar has a chocolate coating.  I think of this bar as a "recovery food" for post workout and intense runs.  Maybe it's best that this bar is waiting for you at home or at least out of the hot sun and not in your fuel belt or fanny pack.  After carrying the bar with me and the mild temperatures of a May morning run in the Pacific Northwest, my coating was a tad bit gooey.  It left my fingers with a light coating of chocolate.  It wasn't as bad as a Hershey's bar, but I'd hate to see what would happen if it was left in a hot car after a trail run or something like that.  

Aside from this characteristic of the bar, it has some pretty neat things going for it.
First off, they are Vegan and certified Gluten-Free.
Each bar has at least 20g of plant protein (soy isolate protein.  There are 21g for the "Cookie Dough" bar).  The high protein makes this bar ideal after a hard workout or a long run as a "recovery snack".  

The "Mint Chocolate" was packed with flavor, and each bar is also packed with quality ingredients.  Each bar contains chia and flax seeds that have a long list of health benefits including providing a source of Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids.

 However, one of the things on my long list of ingredients to avoid is palm kernel oil and other palm oils.  You can click HERE to read some examples why, but that is a whole other soapbox for another day.  Back to the point...  

The average calories for these bars is 290 ("Mint Chocolate is 280 calories), 17-14g of sugar from sources such as organic tapioca syrup, organic dried cane syrup and organic agave syrup.  That's a lot of sugar!  At least the sources are organic, however I'd love for them to be certified organic.  (The PROBAR Fuel is certified organic, and you better believe I'll be buying a pack of those!  So, stay tuned for that review...)

Overall, the bar is very delicious.  I tasted the "Mint Chocolate" and found that it was true to it's name.  There is more mint to it than chocolate.  The bar is chewy, without being tough like many protein bars out there.  The texture is more of a crisp type of "chewy", like eating a chocolate covered rice cake or something like that.  I loved it, but I have my eye on the "Peanut Butter Chocolate" in the future.  Is there a better marriage than P.B. and chocolate?  I don't think so....  

Have you tried a PROBAR CORE bar or other PROBAR products?  Tell me what you thought of them.  If you have a favorite "recovery snack" post race/long run or workout, I'd love to hear about it. I'm always looking for new product recommendations I can learn about and share with others.

Now for the exciting part!  Enter HERE if you'd like to try and win a PROBAR CORE Bar.
Can't wait to try them yourself?  Well, my lucky readers get a 40% off discount your first order.  Visit PROBAR and type in the code you see in the rain puddle below at checkout.