40 Out of This World Homemade Energy Bars
Energy bars are useful in so many ways. They can make a solid breakfast in a pinch, a great snack pre-workout or post-workout, or an excellent afternoon pick-me-up when you’re hitting that afternoon slump you’re still working on kicking out of your day. Some of these bars focus on nutritious sugars, while others concentrate on healthy fats or proteins. Some of them are shaped like traditional bars, while others are following the “energy ball” trend. Either way, they’re all nutritious, delicious, and wonderful sources of energy, so choose one and get into the kitchen!
These energy bites will remind you of those chocolate-covered raisins you used to snack on in the cover of movie theater darkness. Made with mixed nuts (your choice—I’d pick cashews, hazelnuts, and/or almonds), dates, chia, and cocoa powder, these are sure to curb your sweet craving.
Get massive amounts of real energy, not the fake stuff you get from store bought bars. These bars are naturally gluten-free, and taste amazing so you’ll love your daily fuel up that propels you through everything life throws at you.
3. Six-Ingredient Allergy Friend Bar
This energy bar is made from dried figs, sultanas, cacao, carob powder, sunflower seeds, pepitas, and salt. Without nuts, they’re safe for nut-allergic families and would make a great sweet and healthy snack to send to school with the kids if their school is nut-free.
These nut-free bars are made with sesame seeds, chia seeds, hemp seeds, sunflower seeds, shredded coconut, apricots, white mulberries or golden raisins, coconut, and coconut nectar with vanilla for a protein-rich and powerfully nutritious snack. Because they’re nut-free, they’d also be a great snack to send in the kids’ school lunches.
These bars are made to replicate the flavor and texture of the ever-popular Larabar, specifically the gingerbread flavor. They’re made with almonds, cashews, dates, raisins, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, and allspice. Delicious! For an extra boost of black and minerals, try adding a drizzle of molasses and maybe use one or two fewer dates (depending on how much you add).
Photo: Cavewoman Cafe
Named for their hosting blog, these bars are made with almond butter, coconut oil, nut flour, dried fruit, and other fantastic and super-tasty ingredients. Perfect for energy levels and perfect for your taste buds!
7. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bars
I love these bars because they’re sweet and delicious enough to eat for dessert (with chocolate, cashews, vanilla, and coconut) but still healthy enough and full of nutrients to make a great pre-workout snack. Who wants to eat chocolate chip cookie dough before running a few miles? I do now!
These energy balls taste similar to the non-Paleo Fig Newton bars you may have enjoyed in the past, but they’re loaded with good-for-you ingredients instead of sugars, grains, and preservatives. These balls are made with dried figs and dates, vanilla, honey, walnuts, and pecans.
For an energy ball that tastes just like the best homemade banana bread you’ve ever had, give these banana bread bites a try with almonds, walnuts, figs, ripe banana, shredded coconut, cinnamon, and a touch of vanilla extract and sea salt. They’re kid-friendly, because what kid doesn’t love banana bread?
Photo: Garlic My Soul
With just a few ingredients, these bars are incredibly easy to make and especially good for busy families with picky kids. You’ll just need cashews, dried apples, and pitted dried dates, but for an extra yummy flavor, try adding half a teaspoon (or more, to taste) of cinnamon.
I love the cinnamon flavor of these energy bars, and I love that they’re so easy to make. All you’ll need is chopped pecans, walnuts, and almonds, chopped dates, egg whites, cinnamon, and vanilla to make these gently sweetened and super-nutritious bars.
12. Metabolism Boosting Truffles
These “truffles” aren’t the decadent and sugary candy balls you’re thinking of. Instead, they’re a highly nutrient-dense, protein-rich energy ball made from dates, vanilla, almonds, chia seeds, coconut milk, cayenne pepper, and other magic ingredients. Roll them in coconut and pop them into your bag to take to work!
13. Almond Flaxseed Yogurt Bars
These yogurt bars have a base of almond meal, flaxseeds, almonds, honey, and dark chocolate chips with a slightly sweet yogurt coating rich in gelatin. If you don’t eat dairy, replace the Greek yogurt with coconut yogurt. The yogurt coating is my favorite part! So creamy and smooth.
Photo: Peachy Palate
14. Cashew Coconut and Orange Bars
I love the combination of orange and chocolate, and I especially love cashews with anything sweet, as they lend a lovely creaminess. These bars have a soft orange base with cacao butter and cashew butter, and are topped with a creamy chocolate cacao paste topping.
15. Chocolate Hazelnut Energy Bars
An energy bar is only worth making if you’ll actually want to eat it, right? These bars are one of the tastiest recipes I’ve tried, with cashews, maple syrup, hazelnut butter, flaked almonds, coconut, and a dark chocolate coating over the top. Tastes like Nutella, but won’t give you a headache or a sore stomach!
These bars are made with soft dates, cashews, other nuts of your choice, coconut oil, cocoa powder, and ground vanilla. That’s it! This is a simple recipe for a simple bar that’s totally delicious. The combination of sweet chocolate and creamy cashews is so delicious.
These bars are great for when you need a solid boost of energy because they use maca powder, from the Peruvian tuber that’s been used as a source of vitality for thousands of years. Sweetened with maple and made with seeds and nuts, these bars hit the spot.
Photo: Health Is Happiness
18. Coconut Cashew Apricot Bar
Here’s a fun energy bar with a sweet apricot flavor, nutritious hemp seeds, shredded coconut, creamy cashews, and sweet, chewy dates. They’re easy to make in your food processor and, like many of these recipes, don’t require baking.
Larabar copycat recipes are popular and fun, because they’re mostly made from a base of nuts and dates or raisins. It’s a super-easy concept, and then you can add in other ingredients as you wish. Try these cocoa bars!
20. Apple and Almond Butter Energy Fudge
I always found fudge way too sweet to eat, but I love the chewy, melt-in-your-mouth texture. So this energy fudge is perfect! Made with coconut oil, applesauce, almond butter, pecans, and maple syrup, it’s lightly sweetened and perfectly flavored.
These energy bars are packed full of superfoods like hemp protein powder, flax, cacao nibs, and shredded coconut. They’re sweetened with chewy dates and flavored with raw cacao powder. So yummy!
Photo: Real Energy Food
22. Coconut Blueberry Protein Bars
Try this bar if you’re looking for something less “nuts and seeds” and more “chewy baked bar.” This one is made with coconut and almond flours, protein powder, honey, eggs, coconut milk, and blueberries, with a few additional ingredients to help them come together.
With complex, accessible sugars, this bark makes a great energy snack after a workout when you’re needing something with both protein and fat to keep you full longer. It’s made with cacao butter, almond butter, and protein powder or grass-fed collagen (the protein powder suggested isn’t Paleo, so choose your own).
These bars have a handful of optional add-in ingredients, like hemp seeds, maca, and vanilla extract, that can add lovely flavors and nutrients. Even with only the base ingredients, though, they’re a delicious and nutritious source of energy before or after a workout, or during your afternoon slump.
25. No Bake Mint Chocolate Bars
You’ll need to make sure your protein powder is Paleo-friendly before you get started on these bars. They’re minty and fresh, with just the right amount of sweetness to trick your taste buds into thinking you’re eating dessert instead of an energy-rich snack.
Photo: Gi 365
26. Lemon Meringue Pie Energy Bars
This is one of my favorite energy bar recipes because I love lemon, and I love creamy, chewy bars just like this one. These are easy to make with cashews, maple syrup, lemon zest and juice, shredded coconut, vanilla extract, and sea salt.
These bars have chocolate and cashews in them, so I’m sold. They’re sweet and chewy with date paste, vanilla extract, coconut oil, pumpkin seeds, and sesame seeds, too! I love the texture of these as they use softer nuts and seeds without large chunks of crunchy nuts.
These easy crunch bars are made with almonds, cashews, walnuts, hemp seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and a handful of other varieties. They’re sweet with maple syrup and crispy with cacao nibs, and boast just the right balance of tasty and healthy.
29. Easy Cranberry Energy bars
Before embarking on a journey to chia-and-goji-filled energy bars, maybe you want to try something simpler. Especially if you’re new to Paleo or to making energy bars! Give this one a try with dates, almonds, cranberries, coconut, and chocolate chips.
Photo: Jay’s Baking Me Crazy
If all of these sweetened bars are a bit much for you, why not try a savory energy bar? This one is made with a cashew base, coconut and almond flours, fresh chopped rosemary, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, eggs, and coconut oil. It’s a real treat, though it isn’t sweet!
31. Cranberry Bacon Almond Energy Bars
You knew it was bound to happen eventually, didn’t you? Finally, an energy bar with bacon in it. This one is super tasty, and also has almonds, cranberries, date crumbles, and unsweetened coconut flakes. It really couldn’t be any easier, despite that there’s meat in it!
These bars are packed! They have a dose of healthy fat from the avocado and shredded coconut, while the pumpkin seeds, cocoa powder, dates, pecans, and chia seeds help bring awesome flavors and textures to the party. I don’t know if I’d be able to resist adding chocolate chips, too!
These bars are made of a mostly coconut base, and the rest is super flexible. You’ll also add cinnamon and vanilla, coconut oil, honey, and salt, and your own combination of nuts and dried fruit. This blogger makes her own suggestions, but feel free to go wild!
Photo: Beauty And The Foodie
These energy bars are made from raw almonds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, cinnamon, vanilla, molasses, and almond butter with a few other helper ingredients. Optionally, you can top them with a sweet and lovely melted chocolate drizzle.
This blogger calls this recipe Power Bars, and for good reason! With almonds, flaxmeal, shredded coconut, almond butter, coconut oil, honey, vanilla, and optional chocolate, they’re packed with power and are tasty enough that you’ll always want to throw a few into your bag.
Go on—have some apple pie before your workout. I dare you! No, really—these apple pie bars are healthy, so you really can dig in before your workout and have a snack that will leave you fueled, energized, and certainly pleased with the taste of dried apples, cinnamon, and maple syrup.
37. Coconut Cranberry Protein Bars
These bars are so tasty with coconut flakes, dried cranberries, almond butter, and honey. They taste like a holiday dessert, but with actual nutrition! Don’t forget the optional dark chocolate chunks, which would totally be mandatory in my mind.
Photo: Yakkafit
With plenty of coconut butter, honey, vanilla, chia seeds, coconut flour, shredded coconut, and (of course) chocolate, these bars will definitely satisfy your sweet tooth while also giving you enough energy to get through your afternoon with a smile on your face.
While they may be another Fig Newton-inspired bar, these actually have a special ingredient not in the original cookies. Cricket flour! I promise it’s not weird and doesn’t taste like bugs. You won’t even realize you’re eating crickets in these unique and yummy bars.
These bars are made with dates, shredded coconut, chia seeds, sea-buckthorn powder, bee pollen, salt, and red palm oil, for an interesting and tasty bar with unusual ingredients and a beautiful black-and-gold color. The perfect energy-rich treat!
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