'Theme and Variations' 3: Energy Bars/Bliss Balls

I guess I'm picking an easy one this week, because I'm still so behind on everything having been gone camping and then up to my elbows in processing afterwards. I'm still not caught up energetically either, and Phil is feeling a little sick too, so catching up on chores is taking longer than we'd expected.

'Energy bars/bliss balls' is an 'easy' 'theme and variations' for me because I've already done a whole series of posts about energy bars here! I might as well link them all in here so that we're consolidated up to this point. But another good reason for picking up on these again is that I have a good modification to the basic recipe technique that I figured out this past week. So then, here's the first recipe and conceptual background, and here's the post where I explain 'chia sweet,' and here's where I explain about 'pressing.'

For me at the moment, 'no sugar'/'low glycemic' is taken as read (although I am open to seeing how goji berries can be worked in and perhaps yacon slices too, as in Shannonmarie's suggestion).

This means that whereas the standard energy bar 'theme' is nuts/seeds blended with dried fruit plus whatever superfoods and spices, for me, 'chia-sweet,' or chia gel, or flax meal whipped with water or tea, are going to replace the dried fruit, and stevia (or occasionally xylitol) is going to replace dried fruit and any honey or agave as the sweetener. Cinnamon, vanilla and other spices that have a sweetening effect are also used a lot.

I wrote before about my technique of mixing all the nuts and dry ingredients together, and adding the coconut oil and chia-sweet last. But this week I discovered that mixing the coconut oil and chia-sweet together first and then stirring in the dry ingredients works much better overall. I'll give the full recipe that I winged up in a moment in the 'variations' section.

Variations

Obvious variations are the whole slew of 'lara bar' flavors (or: 'bitt bars?!'. Just by varying which nuts are used, the flavor can be changed a lot. I've posted before about how much I enjoy super-spicy mixes, with everything from cinnamon and ginger to lemon peel and cayenne pepper all together, but variations involving just cinnamon and ginger, or just cardamom and cinnamon, or just lemon and poppy seed, or just vanilla, are wonderful also. 

And I seem to have lots of good company on this one: my all-time favorite combination, mint and chocolate! 

My new recipe was for mint-chocolate balls. 

I started by mixing together 1/2c coconut oil (melted) and about a cup of 'chia sweet,' which was chia gel made in strong stevia-sweetened peppermint tea with some peppermint oil added. Added a little shake of salt.

Next, I stirred in about a cup of shredded coconut. Then, about 3/4c cacao nibs. And then, I simply added coconut flour until it all held together. To make it last better, I left it out on a tray in a warm spot with lots of airflow (the air is dry up here and as I've said before, on sunny days our cabin is an oven).

These 'balls' (it made 20-some) are almost too yummy to me! It scares me when I like something that much. 

What's your favorite energy bar flavor? What's the weirdest one you've ever tried? Mine would have to be my own spirulina/cayenne/lemon zest/cinnamon/sesame bars! Can we say 'Ela-bar-ate?!'