Recipe: Quinoa Coconut Energy Bars

Happy Birthday to me! Please, don’t send carts, send gifts!

As my birthday present to you, I’ll let you all look (salivate) at my homemade birthday cake:

With special thanks to Ange, thanks doll!

Nah just kidding, I wouldn’t do that to you. My REAL birthday present to you all is a cool, new, energy bar recipe!

Buckle up guys, this is THEE best tasting bar I have ever tasted! Remember how I said I put some leftovers to good use? Well, since am sort of a Quinoa fanatic I almost always have some cooked Quinoa on hand. Or some bags calling me to be used, you know. Quinoa is super yummy and has a cute, fluffy texture (yes, cute) but most importantly, in my opinion vegetarians and vegans should swear by it.

Quinoa is high in both protein and iron and contains some calcium too. I instantly knew I wanted to turn my leftover Quinoa into a yummy, portable snack. I made these bars based on this recipe from the wonderful Anne, (who coincidentally is also studying nutrition, hi Anne!). I made a lot of changes and here is my version:

For 10 bars:
* 150 g cooked Quinoa
* 100 g oats (I used small leaf)
* 4 T coconut butter *
* 30 g agave
* 50 g dried cranberries, halved (or any other dried fruit)
* 50 g seeds: pumpkin, pine & sunflower
* 1 T vanilla protein powder (or 1/2 t vanilla extract)
* 1/4 cup soymilk (6oml)
* 1 flax egg: 1 T ground flax seeds + 2 T warm water
* sprinkle sea salt

Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Make your flax egg and set aside. Place all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix until nice and sticky, add the flax egg at the end. Use your hands to really press the batter together.

Line an oven dish with parchment or tin foil and spread mixture out evenly, press together to form a sturdy layer. Bake for ~14 minutes and place in the fridge for about an hour. This last step is really important so the bars can firm up! After at least an hour, cut into 10 bars (or whatever you like).

Notes: instead of coconut butter, you could use any nut butter. I however LOVE coconut butter and the flavor really pops out in these bars, especially combined with the tart-ness of the cranberries. You can make coconut butter yourself quite easily, see my old recipe page for homemade coconut butter instructions! (But basically just throw a big amount (at least 150 grams) of dried shredded coconut in a food processor and process until smooth and creamy. May take some time but it’s so worth it!).

You can use honey (or any other liquid sweetener) instead of agave. If you omit the protein powder, I’d advice you to add 1 (heaping) T of any flour, for binding purposes.

Hubba Hubba

Each bar contains almost 10% of your daily recommended intake for iron (if you’re not vegan/vegetarian, otherwise 7%) and is bursting with other nutrients too: manganese, magnesium, tryptophan, copper, etc. But what I like most about these bars is they taste delicious. Enjoy!

I’m off to do my fav birthday ritual: studying and making an exam (for years in a row now, really guys?). But before that I am going to crank in a 7km run! Afterwards I am going to have a drink with my lovely classmates and then I’m off to surprise my family with this chocolate-coma-inducing (trust me, I know) torte!

Ta ta!

Love,

Sabine