Boot camp is officially over. It’s a bittersweet ending. Sweet because I won’t have to wake up at 5:07 every morning anymore, but bitter because I loved the atmosphere for working out. Sadly, I can’t afford to continue boot camping on a long-term basis.
Even though I can’t continue, it was just the kick start I needed to bring myself to a higher level of fitness. I think I’ll be able to work out more intensely on my own now and am in the habit of working out 5 days a week, whereas before it was a struggle to get 3 workouts in a week.
I wish I could be the kind of person who feels lost when she misses a workout, who looks forward to spending hours in the gym, but that’s just not me. I think it is because as an athlete, growing up and throughout college, I was always working out with a purpose. I was practicing with a team or training for a race. Working out for the sake of working out, just to be fit, doesn’t carry much luster for me.
Tangent over.
One of my favorite post-workout snacks (you know, because I always climbed back in bed after the workout rather than just starting my day) during boot camp was one of these mini Larabars I won from Clean Eating Chelsey‘s blog a few weeks back. (Score!)
Can you tell we like Larabars? These bags were FULL.
The best discovery of my winnings was the lemon-flavored bar. I never would have guessed that I’d like the lemon bars, so I hadn’t ever tried one. But let me tell you, the Lemon Larabar is amazing. I can’t believe I waited this long to discover it. It might have something to do with my current obsession with all things lemon-flavored. Not sure where it’s coming from, but I’m lovin’ lemons lately.
When all the yellow packages were gone from my bag 0′ bars, I knew I had to create my own. I was secretly hoping I’d be the only one to like these, but Tim enthusiastically declared them my “best bars yet!” and Meghan scarfed one down and asked for another immediately. I guess I have to share.
Lemony Snack Bars
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 8 bars 1x
Description
No bake Lemony Snack Bars. These are a perfect healthy snack idea!
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup whole pitted dates
- 1/3 cup cashews (mine were roasted and lightly salted)
- 1/4 cup almonds (mine were raw)
- 1/4 teaspoon lemon extract
Instructions
- Put the dates, cashews, and almonds in a food processor and process until the dates and nuts are broken down. Add the lemon extract and continue to process a little more. The mixture will look a little dry and like it’s not going to stick together, but it will, trust me!
- Dump your mixture onto a piece of wax paper.
- Form it into a rectangular loaf.
- Slice it into small bars. You can keep these in the fridge or on the counter. They will be firmer if kept in the fridge, but hold together fine if kept on the counter.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Category: Snacks
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 bar
- Calories: 91
- Sugar: 9.3g
- Sodium: 1.1mg
- Fat: 4.25g
- Carbohydrates: 12.75g
- Protein: 2.25g
Now for a little peak behind the blog. In order to take advantage of the natural light, I took the pictures for this post outside. It was a grey day and it wasn’t bright enough on the deck, so I brought the little table I was using right down to the grass. When I was finished, I was in a hurry to get inside so I just carried the whole table, with everything on it, up the stairs of the deck. Only I didn’t make it up the stairs. For an athletic person I am exceptionally clumsy and the entire contents of the table ended up on the floor.
Somehow the white plate survived the crash, but the green polka-dotted bowl didn’t make it. Even though it was only $2.50 at Target, I was still sad. Someone else was sad, too.
This isn’t the best picture, but that’s Meghan (sans pants) and Tim looking on at the big mess Mommy made. And I don’t know if you can discern Meghan’s expression, but she was not happy. Time to make more bars.
Hi Maeyea. I just made these yummy lemon bars but my mixture was very sticky so the nuts didn’t ground up too much. I used medjool dates, maybe chopping them before measuring them meant I had too much? Plus I did half roasted cashews and half regular (not soaked) as I didn’t have enough roasted. Finally I used fresh lemon (a tspn of zest and a tbsp of juice). They tasted yummy but how can I make them less sticky? Use less dates/less juice? Or process the nuts first to make them more finely chopped, then add the more wet ingredients? Not made these before so not sure. Thanks!!
Sorry Maryea! My phone autocorrected your name. Apologies
Did you use a food processor? The more chopped the nuts are the stickier it becomes, so that’s not it. You can add more nuts or less dates to make them less sticky. I hope that helps! 🙂
Thanks for replying. Yes I used a food processor throwing all the ingredients in at once. After a few spins the mixture stuck together and the processor couldn’t chop it anymore so when I added more nuts they weren’t chopped enough. I’ll add less dates next time and see how I go. It’s a lovely recipe and still tastes nice regardless. Thanks