Saturday, August 30, 2008

Good (not yet great) eats

I've been searching for the perfect granola bar for over a year now.  Either they have tons of calories and/or sugar, have artificial sweetener (which I've been torn about for a while now), or taste like cardboard.  Ideally I want something that has lots of fiber and protein to keep me full (and the protein is nice after a workout, too).  The closest thing I've found is Kashi bars, but they're still not perfect.

I finally came to the conclusion that I need to make my own so that I can put exactly what I want in them (and avoid all of those artificial colors/flavors/sweeteners and random other processed crap).  A few weeks ago I saw an episode of Good Eats devoted to healthier granola and protein bars, so I decided to try Alton's protein bar recipe.  I made a few changes: whey protein isolate instead of the soy (don't get me started on soy...), applesauce instead of juice, and some honey (about 1/4 cup) instead of brown sugar.  Oh, and for the fruit I used raisins, bing cherries, tart cherries, and papaya because that's what I had on hand.  

They turned out pretty tasty.  It's not the absolute best thing ever (which is probably good because I might be tempted to eat a lot of them), but they're definitely good and have a lot of protein.  It's definitely a recipe that will be fun to tweak... oats, flax meal, and various nuts would be good additions, and maybe even some unsweetened coconut.  I also think it would be good with a little bit less fruit (it's a bit overpowering).  There are several other granola bar recipes that I want to try, too, but it looks like overall this is going to be a much better solution than continuing to search for packaged ones.

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