Key Lime Powerbars

Woo. It has been one heck of a week.

If you haven’t been keeping up in the news (both national and local), Oklahoma teachers walked out of the classroom on Monday and have not been back since. Instead, roughly 30,000 of them are congregating at the state capitol, pushing for lawmakers to restore funding to education.

Oklahoma currently sits 49th in the US for education. That’s not good.

Ever since I’ve been living here (2012), the Republican led-legislature has gutted the education budget. They’ve struggled to come up with a budget in the black every year since then as well. All of those tax cuts are fun and great, but they have real reprecussions later down the line. We’re now at the end of said line, and most every agency in the state has suffered layoffs, shuttered buildings, and grossly under-qualified staff.

Teaching has seen the worst of it. Classrooms are reaching a peak of 40 kids per class, people who have no clue how to teach are getting emergency certifications because there aren’t enough teachers left in the state, and schools are falling apart.

So, we’ve been on this teacher walkout/strike all week long. I even stumbled across one woman running 13 miles from her home to the capitol to protest while I was leaving the gym the other day.

Our state senate votes on a handful of bill today, but it still won’t be enough money to restore the years and years of lack of empathy and money from the state. I definitely anticipate this strike to last through next week.

To get me through the crazy workweek, I’ve been relying on easy-to-eat snacks and meals. One of those were these Larabar-inspired powerbars I made. I’ve been living for them.

Larabars have been my go-to snack for ages now. I love pretty much every flavor (except apple pie, for some weird reason) and usually eat them on a 2 a.m. break I give myself at work. These worked great in their place, and they were extremely easy to make. Like, crazy easy. Why have I not just been making my own larabars this whole time?!

I made mine a little too crumbly, and should’ve fixed them but I was feeling lazy. If yours are too crumbly and aren’t holding a good shape, just throw a few dates into the blender and pulse until everything sticks together well. A quick pop in the fridge for about 30 minutes should also do the trick.

Key Lime Powerbars

• Servings: 6-8
• Time: 20 mins
• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

Key lime flavored fruit and nut bars for a quick and healthy snack.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup unsalted cashews
• 3/4 cup whole almonds
• 20 medjool dates
• Pinch of flaky sea salt
• Zest of 1 lime
• Juice of 1 lime

Directions

1. In a food processor, combine cashews, almonds, dates, salt, lime zest and juice. Pulse until mixture is well combined and nuts are small.
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and press mixture onto paper into a rectangle. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Cut into bars. If mixture is falling apart, put it back into the food processor and add a few more dates.

Step-By-Step Instructions

In a food processor, combine cashews, almonds, dates, salt, lime zest and juice. Pulse until mixture is well combined and nuts are small.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and press mixture onto paper into a rectangle. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Cut into bars. If mixture is falling apart, put it back into the food processor and add a few more dates.