The book Power Hungry by Camilla V. Saulsbury is a collection of recipes to make your own energy bars, granola bars and protein bars.  This book is something I came across at Barnes and Noble back in the Spring of 2015.  I have been using it on and off to make my own protein and granola bars instead of buying them.

So far I have tried about ten or more of the recipes.  As you can see from the book photo above I have a bunch of them marked with post it flags – that is how I go through a recipe book – I flag all the ones that look or sound good so I know which ones I need to get ingredients for.  The book is filled with lots of different recipes and all the recipes have variations to try using the same basic recipe but with a few ingredient changes – I really like that.  The recipe  chapters of the book are:

• Super Natural Knock-Offs
• Activity Bars
• Endurance Bars
• Protein Bars
• Raw and Almost Raw Bars

Some of the recipes are super simple and you just blend the ingredients together in your food processor and then put into a pan and refrigerate to set them, cut them and you are done.  Some of the other require cooking, either some ingredients on the stove top or some actual baking time.  For all the recipes in the book there are directions as to how to store them and for how long.  There is a room temperature version, refrigerator version and  freezer version.

The beginning of the book also lists pantry ingredients to have on hand.  There are ingredients such as whole grains, natural sweeteners, chocolate and cocoa, canned ingredients, nuts, seeds and nut butters, oils, eggs, dairy and non dairy milks, all natural protein powders and extract flavorings.  If you already eat a pretty healthy diet chances are you have a lot of the ingredients already.  I found that there were several recipes I could make right away without having to go buy anything.

So far the recipes I have tried are:

• Fitness Fiber Bars – which are suppose to be similar to Fiber One Bars – I made the chewy chocolate chip version and liked them
• Canyon Crunch Bars – which are suppose to be similar to Nature Valley Crunchy Granola Bars – I tried the Cinnamon Pecan version and they were okay – these are kind of hard and crunchy, just like the bars you buy but mine were more crumbly – they didn’t really stay together as bars but they were still good to eat in chunks
• Lucy Bars – which are like Larabars – personally I have never bought one of them but I love this recipe and the many variations.  I have made the PB & J Bars, Cashew Cookie Dough Bars and the Blueberry Cobbler Bars and that is only about a quarter of the different versions listed under this recipe
• Raisin Bran Bolt Bars – I made the double chocolate version of these and they are kind of like a brownie.  My son and his friends came home for lunch from school the other day and they were even eating them – I didn’t tell them they were made with good for you all natural ingredients and high in fiber.
• Seeds of Power Bars – this one so far is the only one I didn’t really like all that much – it was kind of plain to me
• PB & J Protein Bars – these were easy to make and tasted good – they have protein powder in them so good before or after a workout
• 5 minute Protein Truffles – lots of variations with this recipe and I have tried a couple of them and liked them both

Above are a couple of the versions of the bars I have recently made.  Mine probably don’t look as pretty as ones you buy in a package but they taste good and that is one of my main goals – to have a healthy homemade tasty power bar.

Making your own granola and protein bars is really pretty simple and if you have some great recipes, like the ones in this book, you will always have healthy snacks around.  The main reason for making the bars versus buying them for me is that I like to know what is in my food and I want to have control over what I put in them.  Also, the cost of making them yourself is a lot less than buying them.

Have you ever made your own protein or energy bars?  If so, what recipe did you use?  Let me know by leaving a reply.

Have a great day!

-Kimberlee