Brendan Brazier’s raw food recipe for Chocolate Blueberry Energy Bars, from his new book ‘Thrive – The Vegan Nutrition Guide to Optimal Performance in Sports and Life.’
Chocolate Blueberry Energy Bars – A Raw Recipe from Brendan Brazier
“High in antioxidants and flavonoids, these bars help reduce free radical damage in the body and improve cellular recovery. I first started making these bars when I began getting serious abut triathlon training and racing…I’d carry them with me on long rides and during Ironman races. They’re the perfect clean-burring fuel to keep you going strong for hours.”
Yields: 12 bars
Prep Time: 10 minutes
1 cup fresh or soaked dried dates
1/4 cup almonds
1/4 cup blueberries
1/4 cup roasted carob powder (or cacao to make 100% raw)
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
1/4 cup hemp protein
1/4 cup unhulled sesame seeds
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp lemon zest
Sea salt to taste
1/2 cup sprouted or cooked buckwheat (optional)
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
In a food processor, process all of the ingredients together, except the buckwheat and blueberries. Knead the buckwheat and berries into mixture by hand. Enjoy!
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About Brendan Brazier
Brendan Brazier is one of only a few professional athletes in the world whose diet is 100 percent plant-based. He’s a professional Ironman triathlete, bestselling author of The Thrive Diet (Penguin, 2007), and the creator of an award-winning line of whole food nutritional products called Vega. He is also a two-time Canadian 50km Ultra Marathon Champion.
Brendan is recognized as one of the world’s foremost authorities on plant-based nutrition. He is a guest lecturer at Cornell University and teaches an eCornell course called “The Plant-Based Diet and Elite Athleticism.”
Brendan’s intentions of spreading the word of an ethical, environmentally friendly, and healthy lifestyle through plant-based foods have taken him across North America, speaking at events such as the Chicago Green Festival and the United States Humane Society Gala. Brendan was also invited to address US Congress on Capitol Hill, where he spoke of the significant social and economic benefits that could be achieved by improving personal health through better diet. The focus of his speech was to draw attention to the role that food plays in the prevention of most chronic diseases currently plaguing North Americans.
Among Brendan’s other achievements are his active involvement with initiatives such as a new exploratory adventure movie on health and wellness, ‘Back from the Edge’, and a photo feature alongside the likes of Barack Obama and Bill Maher in the Charity book ‘A Rare Breed of Love’ (Simon & Schuster) recently featured by Oprah Winfrey.
Having appeared on CTV and CBC in Canada and on NBC, ABC and FOX in the United States, Brendan has become a sought-after speaker.
Aimed at helping individuals and companies improve productivity through greater fitness Brendan’s latest book, Thrive Fitness: Mental and Physical Strength for Life, was published by Penguin in January, 2009.
To learn more about Brendan and pre-order his new book, Whole Foods to Thrive, click here.
9:41 am on September 17th, 2011
How many calories, protein, etc…would be in the mxture…
10:25 am on September 17th, 2011
1/4 Cup blueberries & 1/2 cup Frozen blueberries,
Is this a mistake ?
Which one goes in at the end ?
Can you use un-roasted raw Carob to make it raw ?
11:36 am on September 17th, 2011
I used to make energy bars a lot and I always used raw carob powder. I also use buckwheat sprouts in my recipe. It is completely raw. I have a hard time believing this recipe is not too moist. They are hard to get dry enough. I keep mine in the freezer and then take them out when I need them. I prefer to wrap them up individually as well. I use barley green, dry carrot powder and dry beet powder in mine as well. That explains why I haven’t made them in a while. I am out of these powders. They are expensive. But probably not as expensive as buying the bars already made. I believe Halleluiah Acres makes and sells an energy bar similar to mine. They run about $3 a piece.
11:42 am on September 17th, 2011
I also wonder how to work in frozen blueberries at the end. It would definitely work better in the food processor… I think anyway.
Question: Do these need to be kept in the refrigerator at all times?
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe!!
12:58 pm on September 17th, 2011
Abakash: Maybe the first 1/4 cup of blueberries get blended, and the other 1/4 cup stays whole for look and feel (mixed by hand.) Good point.
1:07 pm on September 17th, 2011
After mixing: then what? Refrigerate, dehydrate???
thanks for the great recipe!
And thanks for all you do for us.
1:35 pm on September 17th, 2011
Sue, I believe these are to be refrigerated only, no need to dehydrate. When I made raw energy bars before with similar ingredients, I would freeze them for a short time to get them to stick into a bar form, but after that, you just need to refrigerate.
4:53 pm on September 17th, 2011
I’m allergic to almonds (tree nuts). What might be a good substitute?
6:02 pm on September 17th, 2011
yes, can some please explain the 2 lots of blueberries.
I want to make these soon. but don’t want to waste blueberries if I don’t have too.
Can you use all frozen blueberies?
9:35 pm on September 17th, 2011
I’ve made these bars before and they were yummy. Yes, the fresh blueberries to blend and the frozen blueberries to mix in by hand, and then I put the bars into the freezer.
1:09 pm on September 18th, 2011
I make similar bars for my kids and there are no hard and fast rules for me…no exact recipes are followed, but it’s great to have a guide recipe like this. Thanks.
RE the raw carob vs toasted carob: Here’s a good article by Dr. Jameth Sheridan:
http://www.blessingsaliveandradiantfoods.com/drjashwoonca.html
He talks about the digestability factor, being that carob is a legume. One thing he doesn’t mention though, are the tannins. I like his thoughts on this…lightly toasted gives you the best of both worlds, IMO.
One other thing practically NO ONE mentions about carob is that it is high in arginine –as are other legumes. People with any type of herpes –genital, cold sores–or shingles, absolutely need to ingest some lysine when they eat any high arginine food – to prevent an outbreak. However, lots of chocolate will also affect some as well.
1:14 pm on September 18th, 2011
Oops, forgot to add this in my previous comment: Years ago, I didn’t know about the herpes/ lysine connection to arginine, and found that if I ate too much chocolate, I would get a slight shingles outbreak (I only get like one tiny blister on my back, but have gotten them numerous times). Anyway, since chocolate would sometimes induce an outbreak, I went out once and had a carob shake. The next morning I woke up with shingles and finally figured it out after some research…
HTH someone else.
11:18 am on September 19th, 2011
Christy, you could maybe try using hemp seeds instead? Or another seed like sesame or chia.
9:20 pm on September 19th, 2011
I’ve been a fan of Brendan Brazier for quite some time and his products. Thanks for sharing this recipe, I will definitely make it.
I do make raw bars myself for about 6 months or so now. I use Chef Tina Jo’s recipe slightly modified and everyone I’ve shared them with, even those on SAD love them.
It looks like there is now another one I will be making that they will all love as well, thanks to you and this post
.
5:46 am on September 20th, 2011
susi, why on earth would you waste lots of money on carrot or beet powder?? that makes no sense! just use the pulp from juicing! i cant believe people would buy powder???? is that living??
and as for the herpes / cold sore comment, you dont need to worry about arginine or any isolate if you eat enough raw greens. they boost your immune system – which is why you would automatically break out into these things, your immunity is poor. from eating crap, probably most of your life. be honest and admit you aren’t doing your body favours by looking at a recipe for chocolate whatever if you have immunity issues. Look away!
peoples, everyone needs to start focusing on the very very BASIC of a raw vegan or vegan diet, rather than bring up oh, you need to watch this one thing or that one thing. FOCUS! RAW GREENS, and raw fruit. the main staples! Living enzymes, whole foods, not fetish ‘addict / taste good’ foods. keep your system firing on all cylinders! stop teh processed crap and ‘substitute’ foods (ie, substitute cheese / substitute chocolate / substitute meat etc etc blah blah) why not forget these disease inducing foods if they are doing you no good! keep it simple, focus on your greens and boost your immunity. you will find your cravings go away and your taste buds change over time so you won’t crave xxx whatever it is or have to worry about it giving you xxx symptom. dont stress about chocolate or carob if you eat it in minute amounts! but if you are addicted to it or want it every day you know you have a problem, leave it alone, forget it exists and eat something to nourish your body rather than for your taste buds. DISCIPLINE! Your body is only on loan! treat it better than you are currently!
think of your body and it’s overall requirements rather than what you crave over the short term, if it is processed and gives you lowered immunity. that’s no way to live just so you can appease your taste buds. that’s taking yourself to the grave early. know your limits. learn to make sacrifices for YOUR BODY to live. no, it won’t hurt and no, it’s not torture. it’s called discipline and you get used to eating for health. your taste buds will grow to like it. take it from someone who does this – i am talking from experience.
TO YOUR BODY’S HEALTH!
7:43 pm on September 20th, 2011
@Liz
Actually you can have a fabulous immune system, but if you suffer from shingles or another herpes virus and have a higher amount of arginine in your body than lysine, you will still have complications. Your body might react to it better than if you weren’t eating as many greens, but you absolutely need to have at least a 1:1 ratio or have more lysine in your system than arginine. If you have a higher amount of arginine, the virus will replicate. Plus, these foods are PACKED with arginine, even when eaten in small amounts, and have very very low amounts of lysine. So even eating little bits, if you’re not eating high amounts of lysine-rich foods to compensate (which are mostly found in meats and dairy btw…better off with a supplement in this case), if you suffer from one of these retroviruses then you will almost certainly have a flare up. Veggies can be called “Lysine rich” but if you study the actual content of lysine of vegetables vs. fruits vs. legumes/seeds/grains/nuts vs. meat and dairy, I think you will better understand the concern here.
No need to go on a rant, this is after all the “Renegade Health Show”, not the “Renegade Just-eat-greens Show”! Health and wellness are holistic, not narrow.
Maybe Kevin and AnneMarie can come up with an episode about how to get lots of lysine in the diet without a supplement or falling off the vegan bandwagon!
12:58 pm on September 21st, 2011
@ Liz
I get that you want people to focus on a very strict raw vegan diet and not worry about substituting foods and processed foods but you have to remember that everyone’s body reacts and functions differently and what might be good for you might not work for someone else. Also, not everyone is at the same “level” as you. People who read this site come from a variety of backgrounds and might be new to the raw diet. Personally, I lost 170 lbs and I didn’t do that by just waking up one day and eating 100% healthy. I modified my diet as I went along. My diet still isn’t perfect and I’m always going to work towards refining it and choosing better foods (especially as research changes).
Let’s focus on supporting one another and providing positive feedback to help each other out.
9:46 pm on September 21st, 2011
What happened to the video’s are you not doing them anymore.. Miss seeing them.. I could be busy and still hear you or watch you whichever. Come back please. Thanks
9:25 am on September 23rd, 2011
I also want cooking videos and exercise videos!!! : ) You are so funny to watch and you always make me laugh
(in a good way).