Frugal Friday

When we went gluten free we became obsessed with LaraBars. Stone especially, he could eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Considering they are made solely of fruit and nuts, no added sugar or other "stuff," this eating plan was pretty okay with me, but there was one drawback...at $1.50 per bar (at their cheapest) the cost was extremely prohibitive.

So, inspired by this post, I set out to make my own LaraBars. I followed her basic guidelines, but used my own combination of fruits and nuts, all of which I purchased on a whim at Target.







I think I could have done better (cost and selection wise) had I gone to my local health food store, but I needed some other things so I took the easy way out.



I borrowed this beautiful food processor from our neighbor and got down to business. First I chopped up all of the fruits until they were made into a paste. I removed the paste and then chopped the nuts into a pretty fine dust.



I added a dash of cinnamon to the mixture and started to blend. See that spatula in the corner? You won't need that.



Just use your hands and mush everything together until well blended.



I scooped the mixture onto some Press and Seal and wrapped the bars up tight.



After some time chilling in the fridge, the bars were ready to go!

The result was yummy and easy, and the cost savings was well worth the effort. I spent about $6.50 on all my supplies (not counting the cinnamon and Press and Seal, which I had on-hand). This batch made 17 bars, which in my opinion were a bit larger than a store-bought LaraBar. So, total cost per bar was around $.38 compared to the $1.50 to $2.00. What a cost savings!

So, I'm happy and Stone is thrilled to have his bars back!