Make Your Own Larabars
Oct 14, 2012, Updated Sep 27, 2017
Congrats on taking the October Unprocessed challenge! Revamping your diet is no easy task, but rest assured it does get easier over time and eventually even becomes your “new normal.” And I am speaking from experience.
In May of 2010, our family decided to take a little challenge of our own. We went from being a typical suburban family that made our sandwiches on white bread, ate highly processed treats after almost every meal, regularly purchased that blue box macaroni, had never before shopped at the farmers market, and had never bought anything that was organic (at least not on purpose) to a family that decided to take a “100 Days of Real Food” pledge.
For 100 solid days the four of us avoided all refined grains (including white flour), all refined sweeteners (including white sugar!), and anything out of a package with more than five ingredients. We took this pledge to draw attention to how much Americans have come to depend on highly processed food and here we are more than two years later still going strong. The pledge ended up being a life-changing experience for me personally, and knowing what I know now…I could never go back to the way things used to be!
I am thrilled that there are others, like Andrew, on our very same mission. And I am so glad he’s invited all of you to join us! To add to Andrew’s long list of amazing resources that he’s pulled together for this year’s October Unprocessed I’d like to share my homemade “Larabar” recipes with you below. Good luck with your transition to real food!
Homemade Larabars (Peanut Butter/ Cashew)
Ingredients
- 1 cup Medjool dates, pitted
- 1 cup raw cashews
- ¼ cup peanut butter
- 1 tablespoon water
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a food processor and puree until mixture starts to stick together.
- Remove date mixture and squeeze together into one big clump with your hands. Mash it down on a cutting board or sheet of wax paper to form into one even rectangle shape using the sides of your hands (or a knife) to make the edges straight.
- Slice into 12 even squares. For best results store in the fridge, although bars can be kept at room temperature.
Nutrition
Homemade Larabars (Granola)
Ingredients
- 1 cup homemade cooked granola
- ½ cup Medjool dates, pitted
- 1 tablespoon water
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a food processor and puree until mixture starts to stick together.
- Remove date mixture and squeeze together into one big clump with your hands. Mash it down on a cutting board or sheet of wax paper to form into one even rectangle shape using the sides of your hands (or a knife) to make the edges straight.
- Slice into 8 even squares. For best results store in the fridge, although bars can be kept at room temperature.
Nutrition
Homemade Larabars (Nut Free)
Ingredients
- 1 cup seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, or mixture of both
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- Two big pinches salt
- 1 cup Medjool dates, pitted
- 1 ½ tablespoons water
Instructions
- Combine seeds with olive oil and salt and mix together thoroughly. Toast coated seeds in toaster oven, a pan on the stove (on low heat), or standard oven on 350 degrees F until slightly brown.
- Combine toasted seeds, dates and water in a food processor and puree until mixture starts to stick together.
- Remove date mixture and squeeze together into one big clump with your hands. Mash it down on a cutting board or sheet of wax paper to form into one even rectangle shape using the sides of your hands (or a knife) to make the edges straight.
- Slice into 8 even squares. For best results store in the fridge, although bars can be kept at room temperature.
Nutrition
Homemade Larabars (Peanut Butter)
Ingredients
- 1 cup Medjool dates, pitted
- ½ cup peanut butter
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a food processor and puree until mixture starts to stick together.
- Remove date mixture and squeeze together into one big clump with your hands. Mash it down on a cutting board or sheet of wax paper to form into one even rectangle shape using the sides of your hands (or a knife) to make the edges straight.
- Slice into 8 even squares. For best results store in the fridge, although bars can be kept at room temperature.
Nutrition
Lisa Leake is a wife, mother, foodie, blogger and author of the #1 New York Times Best-Seller, 100 Days of Real Food. She began chronicling her family’s journey on 100DaysofRealFood.com when in 2010 they decided to start seeking out the real food in our processed food world. What started as a simple pledge has turned into a valuable and practical resource that’s now read by millions around the globe. Lisa has appeared on Dr. Oz, Good Morning America, CNN, and The Doctors TV Show. Follow Lisa on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
And if you go to the Larabar website, you can see all the ingredients for all their favors of bars, if you want to try and replicate one: http://www.larabar.com/products/
Can you use dried figs instead of dates?
I’ve never tried that, but maybe start with a half recipe to see how it works out.
I just made the nut-free recipe using sunflower seeds, medjool dates, coconut oil and a little dried coconut, and they are WONDERFUL! The trick is toasting the seeds and coconut a little before you blend. Yum, yum!
This post is fantastic! I especially love the timing of it- medjool dates are very briefly in season right now!
Thank you for the recipes.
Just a question about dates? Do they have sulfur on them? I have been avoiding dried fruits because of it. How do you get sulfur free dates?
I am allergic to sulfur. Dates do not have sulfur on them! I’ve never ever seen any with sulfur! Yay! (usually sulfur is used to prevent browning, so look out for pineapple, mango, golden raisins, etc.)
No Costco near me ;-(