Food Bars Basic Recipe:

1. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl
2. Add wet ingredients
3. Stir
4. Bake or refrigerate according to the recipe (or bake then refrigerate). That's it.

Dry Food Bar Ingredients:

• Whole grain oats, wheat, rye or corn;
• Flax meal (whole or ground)
• Bran (the real bran, not the flakes passing as "bran" cereal
• Powdered milk (cow, soy, rice, goat, whatever)
• Protein powders
• A Tablespoon of carob or chocolate powder is added for flavor sometimes
• Sugar free pudding mix, jello

Just about anything can go into food bars. Be creative. Maybe you'll design the next Clif Bar!

Moist or "Wet" Food Bar Ingredients:

Combine anything such as light cooking oils (go easy on oil), vanilla, other flavorings, applesauce, fruit puree, molasses, mashed banana.

Sweeteners: Stevia, splenda, honey, rice syrup, etc. For the most part you don't need to add sweetener at all. Grains and fruits are sweet to begin with.

Extras: Raisins and other dried fruits, coconut flakes, nuts, and seeds (again, easy does it--these are high calorie, even when they are a nice nutritional addition. A little bit goes a very long way).

Directions for Food Bars

Mix one cup of dry to 1/4 cup or less of moisture, mix, add extras, and spread onto baking pan (if cooking, otherwise, straight to the refrigerator). Roast slowly at low temp., stirring frequently until lightly toasted. Pour into pan, let cool, cut into bars, wrap and store.

Key to Food Bars: Portion Control

Remember, portion control! This is not the time to take the bowl into the living room and watch The Star Wars Trilogy. Measure or portion out individual servings. Use store bought bars as a guide to how much is enough. They are not very large, and unless you want to gain weight, you'll remember to keep the portions manageable.

Savings Making Food Bars at Home

Most commercial bars cost over $1 dollar US, and are 2.4 ounces or less each. That's not exactly a huge bar.

Clif Bars are usually around 1.25 each (dollars and cents) for 2.4 oz. with 245 calories, 5g fat, 43g carb, 10g protein. Reasonable stats.

When you visit ClifBar.com check out the book that explains the story of how Clif Bar came to be. Good read.

Odwalla Bars (which I love, BTW), are about 1 dollar for 2.2 oz, 240 calories, 5g fat, 31g carb, 16g protein, just dandy.

In fact, here in the Vancouver, Washington / Portland, Oregon area we have lots of local companies making excellent food bars. Paley Bars and Bumble Bars are others I love. Get out and see what's available in your town too.

Homemade about a dollar a pound, so you'd get about eight bars at 20 cents each. Of course it's entirely dependant on what goes into your bars, so don't quote me on this.

Coming in June, 2005: Real recipes so if you aren't in the mood to just toss a bunch of things into a bowl and see what comes out, wait until the June issue of Bits-n-Bites for People Who Chew, when I'll post a few recipes I love.