White Chocolate Macadamia Lara(ish) Bar ~ A Recipe for Travel

We're a' hittin' the road and we need us some vittles.  Lara Bars are a favorite, but the nuts aren't soaked and they cost an arm and a leg.  Also, I wanted a new flavor.  Enter the White Chocolate Macadamia Cookie Dough Bar.  We crispify the nuts by soakin' 'em in water for several hours, then in to the dehydrator they go until they're, well, crispy.  The soaking process neutralizes the phytic acid, making it more digestable.  Don't have white chocolate or macadamias on hand?  Throw in some raisins, dried cherries or cranberries, or whatever happens to tickle yer fancy instead.  Normally, homemade Lara Bar recipes will tell you to encase them in plastic wrap, which is something I avoid because of it's many toxins and hormone disruptors.  Instead, mine were wrapped in unbleached parchment paper, tied up in cute little bows made of baking twine, and placed in a glass container with a lid.  Will I always present them in such a cute manner?  Probably not. But they were being introduced to the family for the first time and for the kids (just like their mother), cute packaging makes them giddy, so this helped them go over much smoother.  As far as the taste goes... everyone gobbled them right up!  Yee-haw!  I'm going to take the cowboy boots off now.  They're having an effect on my writing.

Raw White Chocolate Macadamia Cookie Dough Bars

Makes 10-12 bars

• 1 1/2 cups cashews
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or if you make your own and happen to run out but still have those beans in the jar like I did, go ahead and stick a whole vanilla bean in there.)
• 1 cup dates, pitted
• 1/3 cup macadamia nuts
• 1/4 cup white chocolate chips

1. Put cashews, cinnamon, and vanilla in food processor.  Turn it on and add 1 date at a time until they're all blended.  Add the macadamias and chocolate chips and pulse just to chop them a little bit.
2. Form dough into bars, balls, or squish them into a pan to cut bars out of them.  Chill or freeze.  Take them out when you're ready to stuff them into lunch boxes, an ice chest, or just to throw one down the hatch right away.

Enjoy!

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I'm sharing this at Monday Mania, Barn Hop, Traditional Tuesdays, Real Food Wednesday, Pennywise Platter, Simple Lives Thursday, Fresh Bites Friday.