We figured it was high time to talk about nutrition.  It is fuel, after all, and we burn a lot of it.  Among friends and family our identity is as tied to our appetites as it is our careers.  Ian’s dad thinks watching us eat is hilarious.  My dad says it makes him sick to his stomach.

So, what do we eat?  Lots of things!  What we don’t eat is easier to cover:

We do our best to avoid substitutes.  Sugar substitutes, fat substitutes, food substitutes. We do not like bars of fake food covered in fake chocolate.  We do not like vacuum-packed space-age vitamin-flavored cardboard.  We like food.

It is also true, however, that we’ve consumed our share of mid-class, post-run, busy-day, and lazy-day bar-o-desperation calories.  It’s either that, the vending machine, starve, or think ahead and always come prepared with a sandwich.  I don’t like any of these options.  There must be a better way.

There is!

Make real food bars!  They’re cheap, healthy, easy and good.  They freeze well, you can make them in bulk, and they’re tough enough to survive a short life floating around in your gym bag. Why wouldn’t you?

We have a few of these sorts of recipes, and we’ll be posting them one at a time over the next few weeks.  We’ll post recipes for naturally-sweet bars for right after the workout, high-protein bars for a little longer after the workout, and some healthy options for on-the-run breakfasts and snacks.  Here’s installment #1:

Better-than-Kashi Bars:

These guys are midday snack bars or something to go along with lunch.  Don’t be scared off by the fat content.  Because the fat comes from the nuts it’s good fat, which is hard to find in on-the-go food.  They break down slowly, meaning you’ll have sustained energy to get you through the day and you’ll stay fuller longer.  You’ll end up eating less and feeling better than if you ate a low-fat snack.  And, a major bonus for me and all my anemic empathizers out there, they’re high in iron!

1 tablespoon oil or butter (to grease the pan)
2 cups well-chopped nuts (we like pecans and almonds)
2/3 cup (unsweetened) shredded coconut
1 1/4 cups oats, quinoa flakes (<–my favorite and the highest in protein) or spelt flakes
1 1/2 cups rice crispies (or the generic “crispy rice”-just don’t use the “puffed rice” cereals)
1 cup brown rice syrup or honey
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons ground coffee beans
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a baking pan or cookie sheet (we used a 8″x12″ cookie sheet) with the butter or oil.

Toast the nuts and coconut until the coconut is lightly browned.  This has taken anywhere from 7-15 minutes.  Keep an eye on it, and stir them around a couple times.

Transfer the toasted mixture to a mixing bowl.  Stir in the oats (or flakes) and the rice crispies.

Stir the rice syrup (or honey), sugar, salt, coffee grounds, and vanilla in a saucepan over medium heat and until it boils, about 4 minutes. Pour the syrup over the dry stuff mixture in the bowl and stir it together until it’s evenly coated.

Spread into the prepared pan (you can use the same pan you heated the nuts in).  The mixture will be stiff enough to mold into whatever size and thickness you’d like.  So, spread to your preference.  The trick here is getting it all really compact.  If you’re using a pan with an edge, press, press, press the mixture down into the pan.  If you’re using a cookie sheet, like us, use a knife to make the edges uniform and, again, press, press, press.  Another trick: wet your hands to keep the mixture from sticking to them.

Cool before cutting into whatever size bars you like.

If you cut them into 16 bars the nutrition facts (according to this nutrition database) are as follows:

calories—-204

fat—–11.6g

sugar—-19g

protein—-3.3g

iron—-8.5%

Some suggestions for tinkering:

-Switch out up to half of the brown rice syrup for any nut butter for a less-sweet, heartier bar.

-Add a soy protein powder and up the water by just a little

-Cut the brown sugar

-Lower the total fat and calories by adding more rice crispies or fewer nuts

-Subtract the coconut to quickly loose a lot of the fat

-Add chopped dried fruit

-Nix the espresso if you’d like

-Really, do whatever you want.  These are easy to tinker with, just put them together, taste a little, and then add whatever you want while it’s still warm.  If you find you’ve added too much and they won’t stick together, just add more warm brown rice syrup or nut butter.

Tell us how you like them and what changes you make!

-Julia

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