A Day of Paleo Cooking

Hello all! I would like to ask you, what do Seinfeld, a food processor, and the internet all have in common? They were all crucial pieces of my epic day of Paleo cooking! My mission: to test out five different recipes for Paleo power bars. It hit me the other day that I was sort of over the Luna bars I have been taking in my lunch and eating at home on occasion. Honestly, they are just too sweet. So I began my search for good Paleo power bar recipes where any sane person should, Google! I was surprised that the quality results were few and far between, but eventually I nabbed links to five different sites that provided Paleo bar recipes. They all had similar ingredients but were set apart from each other by distinct combinations of said ingredients. The gist however, is that Paleo power bars contain nuts, coconut, nuts, dried fruit, nuts, dates, and yes more nuts. Thus they are high in calories, fat (though mostly good fat), and natural sugar. Not a snack that should be taken lightly by any means, but relatively effective for replacing the less desirable processed bars that, as an athlete, are somewhat of a dietary staple. I think they function well as a snack away from home, and could be crucial to Paleo'ers who are taking to the road (aka traveling). With our trip to New Zealand coming up in a few months, it is even more important to me that I put some work into how we will maintain our lifestyle on the other side of the world.

Like most cooking adventures, this one began with a long trip to three different grocery stores. I was able to find everything that I needed at either Sunflower Market or King Soopers. Things like almond flour and coconut flour that I had never purchased before were not as difficult to find some other internet bloggers made them out to be. Then again, Fort Collins is a pretty chill place with several natural grocery store options. I can't say a Paleo'er living in rural Kansas would be quite so lucky. Never the less, once the bags were unpacked I pulled out my netbook and opened up five internet tabs, each with one of the recipes I found. I must admit, I am impressed with how well I stuck to the original recipes. I have a tendency to start making "improvements" to recipes before I have even tried out the original. But for the most part, I stuck to these guidelines well, only substituting when necessary due to availability of ingredients or effectiveness of the directions. The result: five tupperware containers full of Paleo power bar goodness. And I should mention that "full" is a loose term here. Because I was actually a little disappointed by the quantity of bars these recipes yielded. Maybe I am getting a little carried away in my expectations for how many we will go through in a given week, but between Jake and myself, we typically take the cake and eat it all! For now though, there will be plenty because I made five different bars. In the future, we will probably rotate through the recipes and perhaps double them, resulting in only one or two different bars any given week.

It took roughly 5 hours to make them all, which is the equivalent of about 2.5 discs of Seinfeld. And then came the fun part, taste test. Jake, having been at work all day, had no idea what I had been cooking up in the kitchen. But after dinner, I broke out the goodies and we browsed the selection. After tasting them all (and I do mean tasting, not eating an entire bar because Yikes!) we each had produced a list that ranked the bars from most favorite to least favorite.

Jake:
        Coco-Cashew Bar
        Ginger Energy Balls
        Berry Drops
        Nutty-Coconut Protein Bar
        Paleo Power Bar
Me:
        Ginger Energy Balls
        Berry Drops
        Paleo Power Bar
        Coco-Cashew Bar
        Nutty-Coconut Protein Bar

Here we have a picture of all the different bars (two of each, as this is our little taste testing plate). Starting from the pen and moving clockwise: Paleo Power Bar; Ginger Energy Ball; Nutty-Coconut Protein Bar; Berry Drop; Coco-Cashew Bar.








They were all delicious! Yet even as I was sitting there eating them I was thinking up ways to change the recipes to make different flavors. I'm sure there will be lots of experimentation to come. But for right now we have a fridge full of Paleo yummies to eat for the rest of the week!

e.