Homemade Larabars

The local grocery store chain, Hy-Vee, publishes its own food magazine, and the latest issue includes several recipes for homemade energy bars.  I've been looking for a good granola bar recipe, so I gave these chewy almond energy bars from Hy-Vee Seasons magazine a try.  This recipe was almost no-bake, except for a quick trip in the oven to toast the almonds.  And I always like to find another reason to break out my food processor.

However, these bars were just OK.  My husband and I ended up eating the whole batch, mostly because we're trying to eat a little healthier.  But we didn't love these bars.  I did substitute one ingredient -- the almond butter -- for peanut butter because I didn't want to buy a whole jar of almond butter when only a small amount was needed for the recipe.  Maybe they would have tasted better with the almond butter?

These bars were fun to make, though.  The Hy-Vee Seasons magazine has several other energy bar recipes as well, so maybe I just need to experiment a little more to find the combination we like. You could find the recipes on the Hy-Vee Seasons website right now. The recipes will likely be under the "Past Issues" tabs later this month.