Almond Milk and Power Breakfast Bars

As I liberally edited a recipe I'd found online this afternoon, I felt a twinge of regret that I might not be able to recreate it if it turned out to be delicious.  I thought fleetingly of making a note in an email draft or writing it down in my recipe book, but I knew I wouldn't do that.  Wouldn't it be much easier to just start a new blog and post it there, available to be referenced anytime I like?  Of course.

It all started with a quick project to make my own almond milk.  I used almonds in the basic nut milk recipe from the January 2014 Bon Appetit magazine, but I substituted a small splash of maple syrup for the agave.

When I realized how much ground almond the magazine suggested I discard, I couldn't imagine chucking it all out.  I quickly found this recipe online to make "power breakfast bread" with the almond pulp, and checked my pantry to see that I had enough of the ingredients.  I seemed to have much more than 1 cup of almond pulp from my batch of milk, but loathe to be too precise, I didn't actually measure.  I used one whole banana, an extra 1/4 cup or so of flax meal, less peanut butter and more tart cherries than called for, and added generous portions of sunflower seeds and flax seeds instead of chopped walnuts.  Chopped walnuts?  No, see, I have (had?) things I want to get done today.

In the end, I cut mine into smaller breakfast bars to freeze and eat with my morning smoothies.  Not a bad way to spend the afternoon.  And most importantly, they're delicious!