Nutty Energy Bars **RECIPE**

I've been training hard lately in preparation for the Superhuman Games 2016 and my team mate and I needed to find a snack that wasn't too heavy but provided us with a quick boost of energy. At the end of April I attended a Fitness expo and came across some nutty bars, but they were really expensive, and I thought easily made at home...

The bars are made of only natural ingredients, and most can be switched out to suit your preferences. They require the use of honey, for two reasons; the first is to sweeten (I try to avoid natural sweeteners where possible but actually liked the idea of these giving me the boost needed during training), the second reason is to hold the other ingredients together once set.

I'm not used to using honey, since it's not Whole30 compliant, so my first task was to figure out how to prepare it... Trust me when I say the preparing of the honey is quite a tedious task, but essential for the correct result, and oh so worth it! You'll need to purchase a preserve thermometer if you don't own one, I bought mine here.

Ready in... About 1 hour 15 minutes (25 minutes will be watching the honey mixture).

Utensils needed:

Preserve Thermometer

Weighing Scales

Large Bowl

12" x 8" tray (or similar)

Baking tray

Grease Proof Paper

Ingredients you'll need are (or you can play around with your own choices):

100g Almonds

100g Cashews

85g Unsweetened Coconut Flakes

50g Gluten Free Oats

40g Pumpkin Seeds

170g Honey (sourced locally if possible)

4 Tablespoons water

Pinch of Salt

Teaspoon Melted Coconut Oil

Method:

Preheat oven to 160c and line a baking tray with grease proof paper. Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl, and then cover the baking tray evenly with the mixture. Put the bowl to one side to use again later. Pop the tray into the oven for 10 minutes, rotating the tray after 5 minutes to ensure the dry mixture toasts evenly. After 10 minutes allow to cool before adding back to the large bowl.

Also line a 12" x 8" x 1" baking tray with grease proof paper.

Place the honey, water and salt into a small pan and stir well. Put the thermometer into the pan and heat the honey mixture on a low heat . This is where it gets quite tedious, the mixture will begin to simmer, then bubble, and you'll need to make sure you don't get any spillages! Occasionally stir. You need to keep an eye on the mixture and the temperature, it takes around 20-25 minutes for the mixture to reach the desired heat of 135c/275f (over hard ball temperature). Once the temperature reaches about 260f it generally only takes another couple of minutes, and the mixture will have settled down to a gentle simmer again (no more volcanic honey)!

It's important to remove the mixture from the heat as soon as it reaches the correct heat, to stop it turning brittle after setting.

Pour the honey mixture over the dry mixture in the large bowl and mix thoroughly until all dry ingredients are coated. Tip immediately into the 12" x 8" tray you lined earlier, as evenly as possible. Dip a spatula or tablespoon into the melted coconut oil and firmly press the mixture into all corners and edges, really pressing down and compacting it as much as possible (the coconut oil is just to stop the mixture sticking to the spoon so use as much or as little as you need).

Leave to set at room temperature for 40-45 minutes, or until the nuts seem firmly stuck together but the slab isn't rock solid. Turn the mixture out onto a chopping board and with a sharp knife cut into 24 equal bars.

Wrap each bar in grease proof paper and store in an air tight container.

Enjoy!

Calories per bar = Approx 101

Protein per bar = Approx 2.4g

I'm tempted to try this with some dark chocolate drizzled over the top as a really indulgent treat, but keeping it as clean as I possibly can in the run up to the games in a weeks time! If you try any other variations I'd love to hear about them!