Nervous Nelly Makes LaraBars

I pre-wrote this post because by the time you read this, I should be in Phoenix, or well on my way.

I am flying from San Diego to Phoenix for a day trip. I have a lot of anxiety about the trip, not because of flying or airports or driving around in a rental car in a different city. I have anxiety because I have never been away from Skylar for more than 3 hours!

She is 2.5 years old and we have been pretty much inseparable since her birth, with the exception of 3 hours here and there when I get my hair done. ( You know how slow those girls can be putting the foils in!) Daddy takes her on weekend mornings to give me a break but I’ve never had even a half-day away from her, let alone a full day away, in a different city no less! Wish me luck. Hopefully, I will be so busy taking care of the business at hand that I won’t even notice I am without her. Either that, or my lactating breasts will probably remind me we are apart and will leak or some craziness like that. Fun, fun, fun.

Anyway back to food. My plane snack. Diced watermelon, and I threw some blueberries in there after I snapped the pic. And also some homemade granola (which I still haven’t posted the recipe for…sorry, but I will soon).
And a homemade LaraBar that I made. Yep, you read that correctly, a homemade version of LaraBars!

Homemade LaraBar close-up. Sorry, it was so nicely wrapped up in Cling that I just didn’t want to unfurl it. See that big chocolate chip in there?

So for all you inquiring minds, here was my recipe jumping off place. I have tweaked her tweaks and basically use:
*1/2 cup of dried fruit (this can be dates, raisins, cranberries, or if you have other more exotic dried fruits, go for it)
*1/3 cup nuts or seeds (I have used mostly almonds, but some walnuts, cashews, and sunflower seeds too). I have found that if I am using a nut and seed combo to make sure that I don’t exceed the 1/3 cup, don’t just eyeball it, or you will have way too many nuts and seeds leftover and it won’t blend with your fruit mixture.

Rather than doing any of the complicated steps with plastic cling or anything fussy these are

The Steps:
*Grind your 1/3 c nuts/seeds in Vita-Mix or other food processor. Dump into a bowl.
*Next grind your 1/2 c dried fruit.
*If you’re interested in it, now would be a good time to add a pinch of cinnamon. Or maybe 1/8th c chocolate or carob chips.
*Now pour the ground nut mixture back in with the now ground up fruit. Either blend in the V or pulse in your processor til semi-incorporated.
*Dig out your big ball of sticky goodness and with your hands, shape into logs, bars, balls, in whatever size floats your boat.
*Wrap them up into little packages and voila, you’re done. Homemade LaraBars!

You can thank me later. Well, actually you can thank Camilla for giving me a place to jump off.

:)
Averie

Tip of the Day: Get to the airport earlier than you think you need to in order to account for the brainless people who run the TSA lines!