Last week I posted about using leftover buttermilk and raspberries to make a cake. This week I was pleased to find a second recipe that utilizes nonfat dry milk, which I originally purchased to make Brown Sugar Vanilla Ice Cream for last week’s Sweet Melissa Sunday dessert. And not only does it use up leftover dry milk, it’s a healthy recipe: Energy Bars! After seeing so many great recipes from Ellie Krieger’s The Food You Crave on various blogs, I checked it out of the library and one of the recipes that caught my eye was homemade energy bars. And then this weekend I saw that Leslie of Lethally Delicious had made the bars and was sold.
The smell of these bars reminded me of shopping at health food stores with my mom when I was a kid – in a good way. And they are wonderful: chewy and crunchy, with just enough sweetness to perk you up and protein to sustain you – the perfect snack. I eat a lot of Luna Bars, but I may not need to anymore; these are super-easy to make and seem like they will adapt easily to different flavor combinations (and what is currently in your pantry). Mr. Penpen is eager to reduce the nutritional value by making them with chocolate and I would like to try a peanut variety, possible together. This recipe gets an 8 for Deliciousness and a 2 for Effort, giving them an EDR of 4.
Energy Bars from The Food You Crave via The Food Network (my changes in green)
1 cup quick cooking rolled oats
1/2 cup raw unsalted sunflower seeds
1/2 cup toasted wheat germ
1/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup dried apricots
1/2 cup raw almonds (roasted pistachios)
1/2 cup raisins (dried cherries)
1/2 cup pitted dried dates (dried apples)
1/2 cup powdered nonfat dry milk
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
Drizzle of honey
2 large eggs
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9 by 13-inch baking pan with cooking spray.
Place all ingredients except the syrup and eggs in a food processor and pulse until the mixture is finely chopped. Add the syrup and eggs and pulse until the mixture is well combined. It will resemble a coarse paste.
Transfer to the baking pan and spread evenly. Bake until just done, about 20 minutes. Cut into 20 squares.
