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“Cost effective date bars”

Have you ever gone grocery shopping hungry? Chances are we all have, and its not something that should be done on a regular basis. I find myself buying things I normally wouldn’t buy and I struggle to say no to all the delicious treats begging me to buy them.

Generally speaking, most shops stock the shelves next to the aisles with protein bars, date bars, balls, and other ‘healthy’ treats. If I am hungry and I am waiting in the queue to pay for my groceries, turning down the treats next to me isn’t going to happen. Unfortunately after taking a closer look  at what goes into these treats, I soon discovered  that they aren’t as healthy as we are led to believe. The other thing I discovered…they are flippen expensive.

At the end of last month I went well over my budget, and I couldn’t understand how. I hadn’t bought any new shoes. I bought a few things from the Cotton On sale, but nothing extravagant, and for the majority of the month I had chilled at home. Looking closely I realized that my daily little ‘killing time while I wait in the queue’ treats were adding up…I then decided to come up with my own healthy date bars, for a fraction of the cost.

I keep these in the freezer so we always have a stash on hand, and we don’t have to sell a kidney in order to make them…win win situation right??!!

These are also made in a blender so mess is minimal, no baking is required so time needed to make them is minimal and the ingredient list is short but sweet. I don’t think it gets better than that, does it?

Date bars

Ingredients

  • 1 cup cashew nuts
  • 1 ½ cups pitted dates
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • 4 TBS cocoa
  • 2 TBS chia seeds
  • A pinch of Himalayan salt (optional)

Instructions

  1. Add the cashew nuts to a food processer and blend until a flour starts to form.

  2. Add the dates, vanilla essence, cocoa and salt and blend until a ball starts to form.

  3. Add the chia seeds and blend again, until mixed.

  4. Line a baking tray with some cling wrap or spray with some cooking spray. Press the mixture tightly into the tray.

  5. Pop the tray into the refrigerator and allow to harden.

  6. Cut into slices and keep in an airtight container, preferably in the refrigerator.

Jo's Notes

***Dusting with some cocoa after the bars have hardened and been sliced is HIGHLY recommended 😉

   

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1 COMMENT

  • Emily on April 19, 2018

    I made these more for the date content than the cost element – i dont have a food processor so it was a slightly.. errr.. messy recipe to make, but my god was it worth it!! (my daughter loved scrunching up the chopped ingredients with her hands too 😉 )
    Really tasty, thanks for the share! I have a square after lunch to go with coffee to stop me hankering after chocolate (more filling too).
    xxx

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