My family is addicted to these Cranberry Bacon Almond Energy Bars. They’re a crazy good combination of all that is delicious — cranberries, bacon, dates, bacon, almonds, bacon, coconut, and … BACON.
Better still, they’re very fast and easy to prepare. I can whip them together in less than five minutes, and they provide a tasty, nutritious, easily portable, energy-boosting snack.
I often buy pre-made energy bars at the store for convenience, but the kind with wholesome animal fats (usually from bison) can cost more than $2 a bar. These homemade bars are comparably inexpensive, and you can reduce costs even further by purchasing your ingredients in bulk.
I prefer to get my ingredients from one of my sponsors, VitaCost, as they offer free shipping on most orders and almost always have the lowest online prices.
Cranberry Bacon Almond Energy Bars
Makes 8 bars.
The Players
- 1 C. Almonds (where to buy organic raw almonds)
- 1 C. Dried cranberries (where to buy organic dried cranberries)
- 1 C. Dried date crumbles (where to buy dried date crumbles)
- 1 Tbsp. Organic unsweetened coconut flakes (where to buy organic unsweetened coconut flakes)
- 3 slices Thick-cut bacon, cooked, cut into 2 inch strips (where to find nitrate-free bacon from foraged hogs; if they’re back-ordered, I use these guys)
The How-To
1. Put all ingredients into a food processor or heavy-duty blender. (I use my Vitamix.)
2. Blend at low speeds, pulsing, until you get a sticky mass that starts clumping together and/or forming a ball.
3. Remove from food processor and shape into an 7″ x 7″ square on a cutting board or flat plate.
4. Transfer to the refrigerator to cool for at least an hour. Once chilled, cut into 8 bars. To store, wrap bars in wax paper or plastic wrap.
Thanks to the bacon fat, they keep just as well at room temperature as they do in the fridge. We usually gobble them up within a few days, but they theoretically ought to keep for weeks (or even months) since animal fat is such a good preservative and the remaining ingredients were all dried/preserved to begin with.
For more delicious recipes similar to this one (grain-free and dairy-free), I highly recommend the Paleo Eats Cookbook.
Written by a Cordon Bleu trained chef, this book is packed with hundreds of recipes to get you started on your journey to ancestral eating. Recipes are grain-free, dairy-free, soy-free, sugar-free, and use healthy fats. They’re also super easy to follow and can be prepared in 30 minutes or less!
At the moment, the printed version of this cookbook is 100% free to Food Renegade readers. You just cover shipping & handling.
AS ALWAYS, ENJOY!
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Oooo, this sounds yummy! I’m always on the lookout for easy and nutritious energy / snack bars. However, we avoid pork products … any recommendations for a substitute?
1/4 cup of chocolate chips!
James Latanishen
You know what I did yesterday to transform this from awesome to DIVINE??? I added 1/4 cup of chocolate chips. HELLO!!! Get in my belly!!
Ummmmm…the bacon is cooked I presume?
Yep. It’s up in the ingredient list — 3 slices of bacon, cooked, then cut into 2 inch strips.
I ended up with a powdery (unsweet) mess…maybe because I just used pitted dates? So I added some raisins, some peanut butter and honey. Of course I overdid it and they are too sweet and too sticky..but I’ll manage to choke them down:)
Just made them, delish! Thanks for the recipe.
What a combination! Would have never thought of this combo. Sound satisfying.
Jennifer…
I just made these. Not sure if I should hide them from my family and eat them myself or share. Heavenly.
They sound nice but you might not know that the date crumbles use oat flour (to stop them sticking) and so this recipe isn’t paleo.
I just made this and I blended it forever and it never formed into a dough consistency. I used pitted dates and cut them up to resemble crumbles and I didn’t cut the bacon because I figured my super old timer food processor would do that. Would those things make the difference?
Would it be possible to substitute the date crumbles with some pitted dates and a bit of oat flour (which, as far as I can see, is what the date crumbles contains)? We don’t have date crumbles in Denmark and importing them seems a bit much.
This recipe is a really good idea. I wish I’d used whole, pitted dates instead of dried date crumbles which were rock hard and pretty flavorless. I ended up using honey to make up for the lost sweetness of the dates. And there was no mention of any moisture in the ingredients list. These ingredients will not stick together without the addition of water and/or bacon drippings. Even after adding honey, water, and bacon fat, the mixture was pretty flavorless so I added a pinch of salt and was thrilled with the results of adding about a quarter tsp of cayenne pepper for some heat. Now I’ve got a tasty blend of salty, sweet, tangy and spicy to last me for the week. Thank you for the idea!
Yum!
Not odd at all (says the person who smears grape jelly on her grilled cheese sandwiches). 😉 These sound heavenly!!
Ruth Erickson