snack – brickiepedia

Mmmmm Bars!

Holidays are over, wah! Training is in full swing…!

On the weekend we went to Jamberoo where I had the time of my life riding over these rolling hills. Everything is SO green – something about riding around here reminds me of being in Mudgee. Although the roads are MUCH better!

I recently bought some cocao powder out of curiosity. I had put it off for ages after being deterred by the price and also thinking it can’t be THAT much better. Wow. Was I wrong, it is as good as everyone says. It’s not bitter at all and apparently it is super good for you as it contains lots of magnesium, iron, potassium, calcium, zinc, copper and manganese.

I have also been trying to get up in the mornings to train. This is a struggle. I have NEVER been one for training in the mornings, I will happily get up and blog and drink coffee and ease my way into the day! However, the thought of training in the mornings just doesn’t do it for me. I have been out of the habit of going to bed early too making the battle much harder. I did come across this interesting article about how to get up earlier and so far it is working. For me, the trouble was that I would set a super early alarm, not be able to get to sleep for ages and then not be able to get up.

The basis of the article is that o set your alarm 20 minutes earlier each morning to give yourself a kind of “jet lag” and you will start to fall asleep earlier too allowing you to be better rested for when that jerk of an alarm wakes you up the next morning. It’s definitely working as setting my alarm 20 minutes earlier every morning doesn’t seem as tough to tackle as a whole hour earlier than normal and now I am getting up at 5:30a YES! (haha!)

On to the recipe – these came about as I was busting to use my cocao powder and we really need to start eating properly on our rides. We have a 4hour ride scheduled for Saturday so hopefully these will help keep us energised!

I think these would be good with dried apricots in them too – will try that next time! Also, I really just eyeballed the measurements so have a play around with it and just use my measurements as a starting point!

The bits and pieces

15 medjool dates

1 C oats

2 Tbsp cocao powder

1 C almonds

3 Tbsp sesame seeds

2 Tbsp chia seeds

4 Tbsp water

In a food processor, process dates until they form a sticky ball. Add in almonds and pulse until almonds are chopped but not too fine. Add cocao powder and a dash of water, pulse until well combined. Add a little water at a time. You just want it wet enough to help the mixture combine

Transfer mixture to a large bowl and stir in seeds. Add a little more water here if you need to.

Smooth out mixture onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Use the back of a spoon!