Homemade Larabars

I have a little secret to tell y’all…I have an addiction.  To sweets.  And its bad.

I could {and a lot of times do} eat some form of dessert after lunch and dinner, and often times don’t feel bad about it. But it has to stop! Especially on the days where I start my day with freaking doughnuts as well! Yikes! SO, I am trying to curb that sweet tooth candy/coconut milk icecream/kettle corn with Homemade Larabars!

Our next door neighbors have two massive Date Palms and luckily they are dropping them like crazy right now. Our neighbors couldn’t seem to care less, so one morning Bray and I went out and collected as many as we could. He loved it, and kept asking for more Dates:) Now I am be clueless, but I honestly had no idea that thats where Dates came from!

Since I got so many dates for free, I knew I needed to try out making Larabars from scratch {since they run anywhere from $1-$1.50 a piece}! I didn’t necessarily follow one of their recipes for a bar, I kinda just threw in stuff I know I like, and luckily they turned out amazing!! Heres how simple the process is:

 

Ingredients:

1 cup Pitted Dates

1 cup Unsalted Almonds

2 tbsp. Almond Butter

1 tbsp. Chia Seeds

2 tbsp. Cocoa

a pinch of salt

Process:

 

1- In a food processor chop up almonds until smooth {but not too much to where it beings to start making actual almond butter}, set aside in a bowl

2- In a food processor chop together the dates, cocoa, chia seeds, almond butter, and pinch of salt. It will want to clump together in a ball while doing so, so just continue to break it up with a spoon and mix more.

3- Add back in the almonds and mix up all is smooth together.

4- Line an 8×8 dish with parchment {or wax} paper, and press the mix in until even. Set in the refridgerator for 30 minutes.

5- After 30 minutes, take out and cut in to desired size pieces. I make mine a little smaller than the actual Larabars sold, since I don’t feel like I ever need the whole thing. Wrap in press-n-seal, wax paper, whatever you have on hand.

I refrigerator about half my batch and freeze the other half. They will last about 4 days in the fridge, but much longer if frozen. Simply let then thaw out in the fridge before eating the frozen ones!

Thats it friends! SO simple, healthy, and much cheaper than buying the store bought ones! Now lets see if these bad boys can really help me kick my addiction:) Do you have a favorite ‘healthy’ sweet treat? PLEASE share the recipe, because I need help!