Lemony Date Energy Bars

Soft and healthy these lemon date energy bars are the perfect energy boost. Slightly chewy and with only five ingredients, these homemade energy bars are great to take on long exercise bouts.

A busy day often means poor choices in the food department. Struggling to give yourself actual food while shuffling kids around is stressful at best.

Which is why my biggest nutrition tip as a Certified Nutrition Coach is to make sure you have prepped, healthy snacks ready to go!

You'll love these date bars because they're:

• easy to make (only 5 ingredients and no baking)
• refreshing
• loaded with energy
• dairy-free, gluten-free, paleo, vegan, whole30
• kid-approved

Don't overlook the importance of having healthy snacks on hand in grab-and-go situations. It's a lifesaver!

Likewise, focusing on snacks like this makes for super simple meal prep.

Ingredients You'll Need

These date energy bars have one thing in mind and that's energy! This means that their base is made up primarily of dried fruit. If you want to make them more fueling though read on.

Medjool dates: a natural sugar and a great energy boost! Dates don't freeze solid so this means the energy bars can be eaten even when they're pretty chilled. I use them in this peanut butter date bark recipe too, and they're pure perfection.

Dried cherries and blueberries: sweeten the bars a bit more with some extra dried fruits. Any will work but these two make the energy bars really refreshing.

Walnuts: walnuts give the fruit and nut bars a bit of substance and a dose of healthy fats.

Fresh lemon juice: fresh lemon juice will give a more potent flavor to the energy bars.

How To Make Fruit And Nut Bars

1. Process the walnuts in a food processor until mostly ground.
2. Add in the dates, cherries, and lemon juice and blend until combined.
3. Scrape the mixture into a bowl and add in the blueberries and collagen if using.
4. Dump the mixture into a lined baking pan and smooth it out evenly.
5. Pop in the freezer for thirty minutes.

How You Can Add MORE Fuel To Healthy Snack Bars

Want to make the date energy bars a bit more fueling and well-rounded? Add in collagen powder!

All the protein without the bloat.

I use collagen powder for amping up protein and boosting gut health.

Learn about the difference between collagen and bone broth as how to increase protein intake.

Honestly, as a busy mom collagen powder just makes it easy to eat more protein and not feel like I’m living off chicken and eggs.

And more protein means more energy, more natural beauty, and feeling your BEST.

Plus, in recipes like this, you can sneak protein into your kids as it’s one of the purest sources.

I grab my collagen from Perfect Supplements because they source their collagen from pasture-raised (grass-fed) cows. So, I trust it.

Grab some collagen powder and use code mamabear10 to save some money.

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Important Teaching Tips

Because these homemade date energy bars don't have a binding ingredient, they do come out a bit sticky. Thus wrap each bar in parchment paper to store. 

They can be stored in the fridge or the freezer and are best eaten chilled. Otherwise, when left at room temperature they're a bit too sticky.

Also, you can easily use any dried fruits to switch up the flavor! A few of our favorites are:

• dried strawberries
• chopped dried pears
• whole dried cranberries

The less you grind up the walnuts, the more sustenance the energy bars will have.

The bars are great for bumping up glycogen stores (like after a long run) but they don't have a lot of protein in them to stabilize the sugar crash. Add in collagen powder if you need more fuel.

Lastly, make sure to soak the dates in warm water for twenty minutes prior to blending them. The softer they are, the better they process into “date paste” without having to add much water.

Frequently Asked Questions About Date Energy Bars

Other Dairy & Gluten-Free Snack Recipes You'll Love

• Chocolate coconut energy bites
• Banana cinnamon balls
• Superfood bites
• Triple berry protein fluf
• Peanut butter and jam protein balls
• Chocolate Chia Seed Protein Balls
• Banana cinnamon energy balls
• Protein bars topped in chocolate
• Macadamia chocolate protein balls
• Chocolate fudge protein balls
• Energizing protein bar
• No-bake bounce balls
• Cookie dough balls
• Salted caramel protein fluff
• Cookie dough overnight protein oats
• Easy, no-bake vanilla protein bar
• High protein snack recipes

No bake energy bars are easy to whip together and absolutely tasty. All the dried fruits make them a great mid-afternoon treat because they're so full of energy and easy to munch on the go.

Thus, whip up a double batch of the energy bar recipe, wrap them, store them and never worry about what to munch on!