snack

Recipe – Energy Bars

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Still experimenting with this one here, but if you want quick – if not always well-adhering – energy bars these are good – and tasty!

I decided to come up with an energy bar recipe in order to get a good, energizing snack or pre-meal snack to work into my day.  I tend to eat 400-500 or so calorie meals, just to keep from pigging out, so I tend to have about 2 snacks a day (and yes, I brush my teeth then as well).  This was an experiment in creating a good, solid one.

Ingredients:

  • 4 cups oats
  • 1/2 cup rasins
  • 1 cup maple syrup
  • 1 cups peanut butter.
  • Dash vanilla (1/8 tsp)

Directions:

  1. Mix Oats, rasins in a bowl.
  2. Heat maple syrup, blend in peanut butter and vanilla.
  3. Pour over mix, stir until everything is coated.
  4. Put in pan, cover with saran wrap, push down to pack, chill in refreigerator.
  5. When it’s firm, move to the freezer for about 30 minutes.
  6. Cut into 16 bars.

Each bar has 242 cal, 6 grams protein, 3g fiber, and is about 13% of your fat and 8% of your saturated fat needs.  So they’re good, but I wouldn’t eat more than 1 or 2 a day, or use them if you need a caloric blast while working out.

Now the hard part here is not making them fall apart, so I’m messing with the ingredients   First two times I did it they held together, then they fell apart last time.  I’m debating a bit more maple syrup or leaving out the rasins to get better binding.  Ideas are appreciated!

Taste-wise these are insanely delicious.  Plus when my last batch fell apart, it just became pseudo-granola – which is great, but harder to pace yourself when eating.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Thanksgiving Recipe Roundup: Curry Cheese Log

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This is a great recipe for creating something different than your usual cheese log; a spicy, layered, deep taste that has a lot of facets.  It’d probably go well with the right wine – like a Syrah.

I’m also considering cutting it with a little butter/butter substitute, olive oil, or something else to make it into a spread.  Its also a bit hard to coat the roll in stage 9, so I wonder if there might be a better way to do it.

8 oz cream cheese
1 cup crumbled blue cheese
1 1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans (may need a bit more)
1 Tbsp dried Basil

  1. Put cream cheese in a microwaveable bowl.
  2. Sprinkle curry powder over cream cheese.
  3. Cover cream cheese and curry powder with blue cheese.
  4. Microwave the bowl with the cheese and curry in 15-second increments until soft enough to blend.
  5. Mix the cheese and curry thoroughly with a no-stick spoon or spatula until finely blended – it’ll take on a pale yellow or orange color.  You might need to microwave it occasionally.
  6. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator.  Keep there for 2 hours at least in order to set.
  7. Mix pecans and basil, spread out on foil.
  8. Roll the cheese and curry mix into a log about an inch thick.
  9. Roll the cheese log in the mixture of pecans and basil until well coated.  You might need to do a bit of work to patch “holes”
  10. Refrigerate until you are ready to serve.  Serve on top of crackers or toast.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.