Foodie With Family

Time again for Tasty Penance wherein I apologize for all the fattening recipes I give you by offering a super healthy one that still tastes great. I present to you: Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Energy Bars! They taste ever so much like a proper oatmeal raisin cookie but they are good for you. How good for you? They're made entirely of dates, raisins, almonds, oats, cinnamon, vanilla and a wee pinch of salt.  This is the home version of the fancy-pants energy bars (Cliff, Lara, etc...) for which you almost need a second mortgage if you want to eat them regularly. Since they are essentially dried fruit and nuts with just a little bit of this and that thrown in, they are -if eaten in large amounts- very caloric which would seem to defeat the whole Tasty Penance idea, right? The saving grace here is that it doesn't take a huge energy bar to deliver that pick-me-up and burst of power you want. Dried fruits and nuts eaten together are very filling. Additionally, the carbohydrates from the fruit give you a quick blast of energy while the protein from the nuts make you stay satisfied longer. So a small energy bar gives you a lot of bang for your caloric buck. Besides that, we're talking iron, calcium, tannins, beta-carotene, potassium, maganese, magnesium, copper, lutein and FIBER all in one tasty little package. Since these are little powerhouses of nutrition, they make a great mid morning or afternoon snack. Pop one or two in your kids' or loved ones' lunches. Deliver some to a … {Read on...}