Howdy, folks.

Yesterday I shared about an experiment that my sister-in-law and I conducted in the pursuit of learning how much we can save making homemade energy snack bars.  We dubbed it The Energy/Snack Bar Experiment.

Here was what we came up with yesterday’s Kamut Dark Chocolate Energy Bars.

• Tastes like:  Pamela Whenever Bars
• Yields:  20 bars
• Savings:  43%, or $9.36.

Today we tried our second bar recipe:

Experiment #2:  Maca Energy Bars, (from mywholefoodlife.com).

Maca is a South American root with all sorts of health and nutritional benefits that you can read about here.  I had never used it before, but my sis-in-law had the powder handy, so we got to work making these bars!

This energy bar recipe called for tons of seeds:  pumpkin, sunflower, flax, chia…  Great for healthy fats and nutrients, but our husbands ended up dubbing these bars as “Birdseed!”

We made a few ingredient substitutions for cost-benefit reasons.  Since we were doubling the recipe, things like 2/3 cup almond butter and 1 cup of pepitas (pumpkin seeds) gets a little pricey.  Here are the substitutions we made:

• 1 cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds) –> 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds + 1/2 cup sesame seeds
• 1/2 cup maple syrup –> 1/4 cup maple syrup + 1/4 cup locally-made honey
• 2/3 cup almond butter –> 1/3 cup almond butter + 1/3 cup all-natural peanut butter

We also skipped the food-processing part, since we had almond meal already on hand.

After letting them set for awhile in the freezer, (instead of the fridge since I was leaving soon to take half of them home!), we ended up with 16 Maca-packed energy bars.  We thought that taste-wise they were pretty comparable to Nature Valley’s Sweet & Salty Roasted Nut Bars, but nutrient and energy-wise, the ingredients more similarly matched Creative Nature’s Maca Bar.

So after about 30 min of bar-making fun, here’s what the numbers crunched down to:

   vs.  

The Verdict

• Time:  about 30 min.  With no baking involved, the longest part was just waiting for them to harden in the fridge!
• Comparison: Tasted like a Nature Valley’s Sweet & Salty Nut Mix, but nutritionally compared to Creative Nature Maca Energy Bars.
• Cost:  With a whopping retail cost of $2.30 for one Creative Nature Maca Energy Bar, we were able to make these bars at home for $1.49/bar.
• Total Savings:  35% savings, or $12.90 per 16 bars.

Not bad!  But our final bar recipe is by far the winner.  Check out tomorrow’s post for Quick n Easy No-Bake Energy Bars.  Yum!