The other day, I was at trader Jose and happened to glance at the ingredients list - dates and cashews- really??? two ingredients!! So naturally I decided I will give it a try.
If you have never had one, and they don't look very appetizing to you in the pictures and so you decide to not make them/buy them just to try, you would be missing out on some awesomeness! Yes, I have put this under the healthy category and some of my friends do have doubts about my claims of it being good for you. You might say dates are high in sugar and cashews in fat. Be real, my friends. This is real food.. its not the "processed" 80 kcal health bar you eat but this is what you should be eating instead! There is a reason behind why dates are used to break fasts. Its not just me saying it, my dietician friend agrees. Both dates and cashews combined contain no processed sugars, no cholesterol, no empty calories, contain tons of essential vitamins and minerals, antioxidants to name a few things. If you don't believe me, read this and this. So these bars are good for everyone and in particular, if you are into endurance type events like half marathons or biking etc, I can vouch for these as being the best energy boosters during your event. I started eating them during my long bike rides after I just first made them recently and they seemed to work wonders for boosting my falling energy levels.
So heres is what I did... To start with, I took the same amount of pitted dates and cashews - about a cup and a half each.
Then I ground up the cashews in a blender to make a somewhat chunky powder.
Next, I blended the dates in the same blender. The blending/grinding processes the dates into a gooey sticky consistency. You might need to stop a couple times and mix the dates in the blender to process them fine, depending on how good or bad your blender is. This is what you get. when you mix the ground cashews and dates. You will need to work them together like a dough to mix them well.
After this I divided up the "dough" into golf ball sized portions and then flattened them out into about1/2 inch thick and 3 inch long bars.
I used the dull, straight edge of two knives to make the edges straight by pressing them inwards from both sides. You can also press the entire mixture down in a baking dish and then cut it into individual bars. And ta-da!, here is my mountain of bars.
And here is my lopsided mountain of as my friend Elizabeth would say- "Nidhi-bars". I wrapped each bar individually with plastic wrap and put them together in a ziplock in the refrigerator.
Eat me!! I am healthy, I am yummy!
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