Homemade RIce Bars (Energy Bars)

Hello All,

I have been making my own energy bars for a few months now and after tweaking the recipe a few times I thought I’d share it with you.

But first, these are “energy” bars, not protein bars.  I found the start of my recipe in “The Feed Zone Cookbook” by Biju Thomas & Allen Lim.  Their recipes are for athletes, but they focus them towards professional cyclists.  So when you look at their recipes and/or ingredients, don’t be surprised that they’re higher in carbs, sugar, and calories.

Dr. Lim has some great advice for athletes, especially endurance athletes in his book.  I don’t want to start quoting everything in his book, but if you want some awesome whole food recipes for breakfast, dinner, portables such as rice cakes, apres, and even desserts, check out his book. Its available on Amazon and at his site: http://www.skratchlabs.com/

My 1st time making his rice cakes I followed the “Allen’s Rice Cake” recipe.  These consist of calrose rice, bacon, scrambled eggs, brown sugar, and liquid amino acids(or low sodium soy).  Now these were very good, but they weren’t for me.  They weren’t at all greasy or bad tasting, but something about the bacon and eggs while I was cycling just didn’t quite set right with me.  However, since they are mostly rice, they were very easy on the stomach, I will try them again in the future.  **sidenote: these were my wife’s favorite

But since my 1st batch wasn’t quite the bar I hoped for I couldn’t wait to try again with another recipe.  For my 2nd batch I used their Chocolate Peanut Coconut Rice Cake recipe.  These are GREAT!!  The main recipe is Calrose Rice, Raw or Roasted Peanuts, Raw Unsweetened Coconut, Brown Sugar, Salt, Chocolate Chips, and Honey or Molasses if needed.

I have played around with these a bit.  I have used raw unsalted cashews instead of peanuts.  I have used dark chocolate chips instead of semisweet chocolate chips, sometimes I add a lilttle peanut butter, and I always use Brown Calrose Rice instead of white rice.

The recipe I mainly use is:

2 cups Brown Calrose Rice

3 cups water

1 cup roasted unsalted cashews

1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

2 tablespoons brown sugar

3/4 tablespoon salt

1 cup chocolate chips

While my rice is cooking in my rice cooker, I use a rolling pin on the cashews to break them into little pieces and then I combine them with all my other ingredients and mix them in a bowl.

     ***except for the chocolate chips, you add those at the end.

Once my rice is done, I dump it into my large bowl and mix it into my other ingredients.  Next I put the whole mix through a food processor to turn it into more of a paste, this also chops up the cashews even more.

Once through the food processor, it goes back into the large mixing bowl and in go the chocolate chips.  The mixture is still pretty warm here so the the chocolate melts and mixes in well.  If I feel like it, this is also when the peanut butter goes in.

Next I transfer the mix into a 9×9 glass brownie pan and press it down until they’re level.  I let them cool to room temperature, cover them and then put them in the fridge to set overnight.  The next morning they are like little bricks and ready to go.

Now I say they’re like bricks, and they are but when you eat them, being mostly rice, they’re very easy on the stomach and digest very well.  These are also gluten free FYI.  Even if you don’t have a gluten allergy that you know about, sometimes limiting gluten during strenuous exercise can make you feel better(my opinion).

I hope you try these out, everyone that I mountain bike with that has tried them has enjoyed them.  If you have any questions feel free to comment or contact me.

Steve

Crushed cashew, coconut, brown sugar and salt mix

Calrose Brown RIce, a medium grain sticky rice.

Rice Cooker

Coconut, cashew, brown sugar and salt mix.

Rice mixed in with coconut, cashew, brown sugar and salt mix. Ready for chocolate chips and/or peanut butter, honey and molasses.

All mixed and pressed into a 9×9 brownie dish.