This post is for my co-worker Emily’s virtual baby shower! She’s a fellow food blogger soon to be mom to a little baby boy so what better way to celebrate than by throwing a virtual baby shower. When I was browsing through some food blogs and first read about larabars I knew this is what I would make. These treats are the perfect combination of sweet and healthy, packed full of nutrients – exactly what a soon to be mom needs (she’s at 34 weeks already)! No added sugar, gluten free, preservative free, vegan and raw this just screams health and wellness to me. On top of being a powerhouse of vitamins and minerals they’re also delicious! It’s a win win situation for your taste buds and your body. The combination of flavors and ingredients is endless so by no means do you have to follow this recipe. I just came up with these ingredients on a whim and patiently waited for the food processor to break up and mix everything together so I could finally get a taste of the finished product. Spectacular – sweet and nutty with a depth of flavors and fresh zing from the lemon zest.
Now for some nutrition facts:
Raw almonds are a good source of vitamin E, manganese, magnesium, copper, riboflavin, and phosphorus.
Raw walnuts are a good source of omega-3 essential fatty acids, manganese, copper, antioxidant flavonoids, calcium, chromium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc.
Figs are a good source of fiber, copper, calcium, potassium, magnesium, manganese, antioxidant flavonoids, and vitamins K and B6.
Dates area a good source of fiber, tannins, vitamin A, antioxidant flavonoids, iron, potassium, calcium, manganese, copper, and magnesium, and contain vitamins A, C, E, K, B6, Thiamin, Niacin and Riboflavin.
Apricots are a good source of potassium, magnesium, vitamin A and C, beta-carotene, iron, and silicon.
Goji berries are a good source of carotenoids, iron, potassium, zinc, fiber, antioxidants, and vitamin B, C and E.
Have I convinced you yet of the health benefits of these bars? You really must try them!
- ½ cup raw almonds (organic)
- ½ cup raw walnuts (organic)
- ½ cup dried figs (5 turkish figs) (organic)
- ½ cup dried dates (10 delget dates) (organic)
- ½ cup dried apricot (14 apricot pieces) (organic)
- 2 tablespoons goji berries (0rganic)
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon warm water
- Add nuts, figs, dates and goji berries to food processor. Process until a sticky mix forms .
- Add lemon zest, coconut oil, apricots and water and process – make sure mix remains a bit clumpy.
- Using your hands form mix into smalls balls, or bars. Larabars will keep in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer for up to 1 month.
Welcome to Avocado Pesto! Long time foodie and travel enthusiast, I started this blog to share my curious culinary efforts and kitchen endeavors. Here you'll find a smorgasbord of ethnic cuisines and hopefully a few humorous tales too.
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, I love the color of these! Mine usually don’t turn out so pretty. I think it must be the goji berries – pretty and delicious
Heidi @ Food Doodles recently posted..Vegan Maple Walnut Popsicles(or Soft Serve Ice Cream!)
Thanks! I definitely think it’s the addition of the apricots (which give off the light orangish color) and the goji berries that add the redish tint!
Holy WOWza…these are very good!! I’ve had and liked larabars in the past,,,but these are better then any I have bought(of course) or even made…thx
Thanks! I’ve never tried the larabars themselves but I guess I should try at least one so I can have something to compare mine to!
I’m allergic to coconut, do you think I could use grapeseed oil instead?? And I keep my nuts and dried fruits in the freezer, I suppose i can just pull them out and drop them in, or should I allow them to get room temperature first?
I think it would be better to allow the nuts/fruits to get to room temperature just to make sure the moisture on them doesn’t make the mix more liquidy after being processed. To substitute coconut oil, palm, canola or grapeseed oil should be fine. You might even be fine by omitting it completely. The challenge in substituting the coconut oil is that it is fairly firm at room temperature (not liquidy like the other oils) so it’s hard to say how the other oil will affect the texture and consistency. I would just add a tiny bit at a time while the food processor is running to make sure that the consistency is not affected too much. Also you could probably just use water instead of the oil altogether and just add it slowly until the mix starts to stick together in the food processor. Hope that helps!
Thank you!! I think i am going to omit the oil completely (the room temp thing is a good point) and just use water and see how they turn out. I am going to make them this weekend, so I will let you know how they turn out!
Great! Please let me know how they come out. If you want some more ideas for flavor combinations check out this post: http://rawified.blogspot.com/2012/05/raw-larabars.html – I haven’t tried making any of those ones yet but hope to sometime soon!
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