I distinctly remember on the day of my diagnosis, coming off the bus from the hospital, and heading straight to Tesco’s free from aisle to get gluten free versions of my essentials. I’ve never been one for cereal bars and I absolutely hate anything nutty (I know, for a coeliac, I sure am a fussy eater) Staring at me were these Nakd bars, I’d never seen them before, but I thought they would make a nice lunchbox companion so I went ahead and bought them.
Anyway, I’ve been eating them for ages now, and I pick them up if I’m on the go and need an energy boost, they’re even all along the till runners in Primark. They are no doubt, delicious. BUT you can make them at home for a little cheaper, AND you can have fun experimenting with flavours, too!
You only need a few ingredients to make them, and the rest is just add ons and flavouring. And isn’t it nice to know exactly what’s in them? The base for them is dates, raisins and cashews, and if you look around the right food stores, I’m sure your bank balance will appreciate it as it’s a lot cheaper than buying them. Oh, and you will also need some sort of blender to make this.
These ones are what I made, their flavour is cocoa mint. (Basically, After Eights without the guilt) Below are the steps I have used to make these ones!
Ingredients:
150g Pitted Dates (They MUST be pitted for your blender’s sake)
50g Raisins
150g Cashews (unsalted)
25g Cacao Powder
1tsp Natural Peppermint Extract
Method:
Whizz up the cashews in your blender until it makes fine granules.
Add in and blend together the dates and raisins.
Then finally, add the cacao and peppermint extract, blend further.
Line a baking tray/tupperware with baking paper and spoon the mixture out, pressing down with the back of a spoon to ensure it’s evenly distributed.
Chill for a few hours in the fridge so as it hardens up.
Cut, serve or pop into your lunchbox and enjoy!
You can easily replace the peppermint with orange zest, or whatever flavour you wish. For a sweeter taste, you can sub some of the cashews for almonds and use the same method.
And you can use different fruit powders instead of cacao if you wanted to!
They are literally SO easy to make. I got around 10 bars from this recipe.
Let us know if you’ve made them before, and how you get on with this recipe!
Thanks for reading,
Georgina x
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