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Energy or Protein Bars?

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Gerald brings up an interesting question

A few years back a last minute decision to go out for a few days and had nothing dehydrated in advance. As it was mid summer fresh food was out of the question. So on my way up North I detoured by Costco and bought some protein bars as well as Cliff Bars. Had this 3 meals x 3 days. Lucky thing I was alone cause the tent smelled awful

Ok, hopefully not 3 meals x 3 days in future use. And not Cliff Bars, which tastes like the white paste I ate in kindergarten. Maybe it’s more the Cliff Bar gluey consistency than taste.

I do like having energy or protein bars, and usually pack them as after breakfast “desert” with my coffee. But there are 100 different “breakfast bar” varieties just in the grocery store aisle.

From a nutritional, energy, protein (maybe missing fats and oils?) standpoint, and most importantly, taste and consistency, if you bring bars, which ones?

No doubt there are DIY mixed, baked and compressed dried versions, which while perhaps better I will never actually attempt. Someone else can make my pemmican.

In the normal replenish-on-the-road grocery store aisle what do you look for?
 
I'm not into chewy gooey snack bars. I'd rather not have to work for my nutrition, thanks. Nor do I like crackly crunchy snack bars. I'd rather not have to sheer shock my mouth parts for my nutrition, thanks. But somewhere in between suits me. My wife is partial to KIND bars, and the labels promise simple nutrition without much else added. I have recipes to make our own, also without additives. I'll let you know how they turn out when I tackle making them this winter. We don't dive into our small snack bar stash on trips too often, tending to save them as occasional treats for when we're too busy to stop on portages, or maybe whilst lounging on a splendid shore somewheres between lunchtime and cab sauv-time.
"Too busy" is a relative term, especially these days. Ha.

ps. And I love pemmican.
 
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You say potat-ah, I say potat-o, you say tomat-ah, I say tomat-oe. I don't know what the difference is between a breakfast bar, a protein bar or a granola bar. I just know my local Giant supermarket stocks ample choices of all of the above. I like them to be kind of like gorp -- except in a pressed, bar form rather than in a bag. Peanuts, raisins, M&Ms....
 
i'm an unashamed cliff bar guy, but generally use them for when a more prepared meal afield is not possible or convenient. 250 calories in a tidy little package. Always have one or two handy on any adventure. I agree some of the flavors are less desirable, but I find the peanut butter/chocolate the most palatable, even after eating them successively for several days. I also have been known to bring a jar of peanut butter and squirt bottle of honey. Spork out a a few scoops of peanut butter and a few squirts of honey down the gullet suits me fine for energy until I get to where I can make heartier meal.
 
I'm the no bar bar type guy, I don't need them, I like real food myself. I will have one in my pfd for just in case!! I don't mind the Cliff bar if I have to eat some, Cliff Kids are pretty good!!
 
I prefer Larabar. They are much healthier with natural ingredients and no added sugar to give you a crash

I tried making king my own. Which I still have some 3 years later. They’re still good.

Peanuts have a high energy to weight ratio I believe so any peanut based bar is good.
 
I forgot about Larabar, I liked those. I think I picked them up at Bulk Barn. Thanks Red.
 
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A Jif To Go single is 1.5 oz of peanut butter. I often use a Cliff bar to scoop it out of the single use container for snacks or lunch. It is a great combo
 
At this point I've pretty much settled on the Nature Valley "Honey Nut & Granola" bars along with homemade trail mix; essentially peanut M&Ms and raisins. I always bring a small bag of trail mix and a couple of granola bars and typically return most of it to the cupboard when I return home. For some reason my appetite leaves me when I'm on a trip. My guess it would return if I was able to get out for more than 3 days at a time but with my usual trip, snacking is a very small part of my eating routine.

That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.

snapper
 
I always have a Clif Bar in my PFD pocket while paddling for a regular snack. I find them much easier to grab than a handful of gorp on the go.
Home made gorp is my go to while portaging or when i can take an extended break. Mixed nuts, raisins, coconut and M&M's from the Bulk Barn- good to go!

Had a Vegan/Vegetarian Voyageur crew largely from BC while travelling the Rideau Canal 10 years ago that insisted on Lara bars over any other kind of snack- any idea how difficult it was to try to find that stuff in small town rural Ontario back then? And that was just the snacks- you should have seen the rest of the meals they insisted on.

Learned a valuable lesson that trip: know your crews meal habits before signing on...

Bruce
 
I take Cliff bars for when I need energy late in a long hard day. All Cliff bars are not the same. For the energy provided I take Cliff Bar Brownies. I am not saying they taste good but they fuel me up like no other I have tried. The better tasting Cliff Bars have too much sugar for my system and I end up spiking and then plunging. Another advantage is no one looking enviously as you open one up. Also you do not tend to eat them for treats. I take Snickers and Dark Chocolate M'Ms for that.

I have used them often on foreign soils and airlines for meals to play it safe.
 
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Nature Valley sweet & salty nut for breakfast, along with an instant coffee from a little pouch for the sake of convenience. I would, of course, prefer a full English breakfast. I tried protein bars once; they made me gassy, which is no fun - unless it could be harnessed for some sort of canoe jet propulsion.
 
On my trips, I schedule a mid morning coffee break sometime between 9 and 9:30. I'm looking for a shoreline rock or a sunny spot with a view, lacking either I'll settle for parking the canoe on some stable vegetation and stay right in the canoe. I keep it simple and use the VIA instant, with my coffee I need some kind of treat. I have tried many commercially available snack bars, all that have been mentioned and then some. I can't say I dislike any of them, but one that rises to the top and taste the best from atop a boulder or the seat of a canoe is easily the Chocolate Espresso Fruit & Nut Bar from the Abbey of the Genesee. The brothers are my neighbors and I go straight to the bakery, not sure how widespread these bars are marketed; their Homestyle Bread is all over the northeast in major supermarkets, but not to worry, they have an online store. https://monksbread.com/
Additional flavors include Cranberry Almond, Mixed Nuts & Berries and Walnut Mango. I think all of them come in at around 170 calories. If that’s too much, take a look at Monks' Biscotti. They pack and hold up very well for a twice-baked cookie and are the ultimate dunking treat.
 
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I've always packed a bunch of the above mentioned bars and only about one makes it to my mouth during any given trip. I probably have some that are years old which is why the mice won't touch them. I am and have never been a real big fan of these energy bars. A good ol' fashion PBJ sandwich works for me. With this post in mind I think I'll go through my food stash and purge a lot of what is in there.
 
I eat one of those bars with almost every breakfast and have taken about every type bar mentioned except Conk’s Monk-made stuff. Cliff Bars, sweet/salty/chocolate/nut breakfast bars, Crumbs-Everywhere Nature Valley granola bars.

None of them are too bad, but none are all that good either. I’m not sure what kind of bar I’m looking for; not too gooey-chewy (Cliff bars), not to too sweet or salty (many breakfast bars) not crushed in the barrel crumbs in my beard (Nature Valley granola bars).

I usually bring a couple different kinds, maybe I need to switch up the usual suspects and try some that I have passed by in the grocery store aisle. At least they’ll be different.
 
re: crumbs in my beard
My favourite snack to wear (on my shirt on my face on my lap) are homemade date squares. They basically consist of a date mixture shmushed between layers of crumbly oatmeal mixture. Yes they're as messy as they sound, and as good and not at all too sweet. But if you don't have chipmunks swarming your campsite you soon will.

c=cup measure, F= degrees fahrenheit, tsp=teaspoon measure
Combine 1 c dates and 1 c water in saucepan and simmer until thick, then let cool.
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Mix 1-1/2 c flour, 1 c brown sugar,1/4 tsp baking soda, and 1-1/2 c oatmeal (large flake) and work in 1 c butter.
Pat half of mixture into 8x8 " pan, spread date mixture filling over oat mixture. Top with remaining oat mixture.
Bake for about 45 mins. Cut into squares when cool.

I am sure you could healthy these up by reducing the sugar and adding nuts and seeds.
 
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I'm partial to Nature Valley Sweet n' Salty (Cashew) bars, The Almond are good too but I worry I'm going to crack a tooth on them. I take 2/day but I rarely eat that many because I started taking the Nature's Bakery Fig Bars (Costco), they have more calories (sugar) and I like sweet.

20 years ago I paddled with a guy who loved on Clif bars, I tried to eat one and gagged but I still take a few with me, I just returned from a three week trip with my stock of Clif bars intact, those bars have now been out on the water for about 100 days but I will pull one out when I'm on a marathon day and am fading. Never use "gorp" but do eat a lot of nuts plus (but separate) my own special mix of dried fruit (10 - 15 different fruits all chopped up small) and chocolate bars (real stuff NOT "candy" bars).

Once again on this last trip I ate my tube of Pringles at the motel the night I got off the river!
 
I'm really not one of the energy bar guys. I have been making and using my own receipt for deer or beef jerky. Years ago a guy gave me a receipt for deer jerky that was so easy to make and so good. I'll put it in sandwich bags and keep it in my shirt pocket for a quick snack. If I don't have jerky I'll use small chunks of cheese and pepperoni in a sandwich bag.
 
I eat one of those bars with almost every breakfast, and have taken about every type bar mentioned.

I usually bring a couple different kinds, maybe I need to switch up the usual suspects and try some that I have passed by in the grocery store aisle. At least they’ll be different.

I don’t eat breakfast bars at home, but bought a couple different types and brands to try at home and found a new one that I seemed to like, despite the fact (or at-home because?) that they are candy-like. Fiber One Protein bars; small, dense, moderately chewy and very storage durable.

Yup, those will do. I brought two different flavor Protein bars, salted caramel and peanut butter. By day four my taste buds were tired of them, or perhaps just tired of them having the same exact consistency every dang morning.

The flaw in my “breakfast bar” bar plan was selection. I would bring different flavors, not different types. IE, I’d grab two boxes of different flavors off the grocery shelves, but both Nature Valley crunchy bars, or near-fudge chocolatey bars or, all Brand X whatever bars.

I had some protein bars left when I packed for the next trip, brought those and bought some crumbly Nature Valleys, a Cliff bar (still too big and chewy) and some pastry-like Nutri-Grain bars, which really don’t do well when crushed.

That variety of selection made a huge difference. Some mornings I looked in the breakfast bag and wanted something sweet, some mornings I wanted something crunchy, or gummy chewy or pastry-ish. Simply having a choice of taste and consistency options made all the difference. I even pulled them out a couple times as a mid-day or late night snack, which was previously a tired-pallet nope.

I have eaten breakfast bars on trips for way too long to have only now realized that. . . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjVKUap1HgU
 
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