Homemade "On the Bike" Energy Drinks and Bars

[michelem]

I'm searching for homemade "on the bike" energy drinks and bars and came up with the following. Do these look like they'll do the trick, or not?

Energy Drink:

1/2 cup honey (dissolve in lukewarm water)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup lemon juice
7 1/2 cups water
Multiply the recipe as needed.



Home-brew power goop:

7 and 1/3 Tablespoons of Honey
3/4 teaspoons of Blackstrap Molasses
1/10 teaspoons (just shy of 1/8 tsp) of table salt

Be sure to mix everything together well, and it should make enough to fill a 5 serving GU flask.


Energy Bars:

2 cups corn syrup
1 tablespoon honey
2 cups natural nut butter, preferably fresh ground
1 to 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon (or more) cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups protein powder
3 cups oats, quick or old fashioned, pureed into a powder in a food processor (I'm assuming if one is allergic to oats, something else can be substituted, like brown rice flour - I hope)
Mix the first 6 ingredients in a bowl. Stir in protein powder until the mixture becomes too stiff, then use your hands to mix. Add in oats; at this point upper body strength is required. The dough will be very stiff. After mixing, spread onto a 11.5" X 15" jelly roll pan coated with non-stick cooking spray. Refrigerate for at least one hour; cut into 30 bars, and place each into a Ziploc bag or store them somehow. They will remain fresh longer if refrigerated or frozen.

I really have an aversion to pre-packaged foods/drinks, refined sugar, artificial additives, etc., so, if you have any more ideas, please throw them my way! Thanks.

[Jolt]

Sports drink recipe (has a few variations):

1/2 cup + 2 tbsp. sugar, OR 6 tbsp. + 2 tsp. honey
3/4 tsp. Morton Lite Salt
1/2 cup lemon or lime juice (or can use 1/4 cup of each for lemon-lime flavor), OR 4-6 green or herbal tea bags brewed with 16 oz. hot water
Enough water to bring total volume to 2 liters

I'm not a fan of all the artificial colors/flavors either, which is why I took a recipe that I found online that used a package of Kool-Aid mix and modified it as above. Black tea would probably work too, but it does have more caffeine than green tea and I'm not sure if the diuretic effect would then become an issue. Might have to experiment with that one.

[uk elephant]

Great energy bars....English flapjacks:

200g butter
175g golden syrup
75g brown sugar
250 g rolled oats

melt butter, syrup and sugar together. Stir in oats and add chopped nuts, raisins, chopped dried fruit or other additions to taste. Pack into square baking dish. Bake at 180C for about 25 mins. Let them cool completely before cutting and eating or they fall apart. I also pour melted chocolate on top before they cool completely.

Delicious!!! BF has been requesting new batches made every few days this month!

[amymisk]

OK, I would like to try this recipe, but converting from grams to American measurements is very difficult.

As best I can determine:
200g butter equals 0.88 cups of butter.
If you use Maple syrup for the 175g golden syrup, use 1/2 cup. (really 0.54cup)
For 75g brown sugar, use 1/3 cup packed brown sugar (really about 0.34 cup)
for 250g rolled oats, use 1 1/2 cup (really about 1/6 cups)

I hope that helps for all of us in the USA with our household measurements!

[amymisk]

180C is equal to 356F.

[farrellcollie]

I have used recipes from this website - particularly the drinks (scroll down a bit when you first get to website)

http://www.cptips.com/hmdesnk.htm

[anakiwa]

OK, I would like to try this recipe, but converting from grams to American measurements is very difficult.

As best I can determine:
200g butter equals 0.88 cups of butter.
If you use Maple syrup for the 175g golden syrup, use 1/2 cup. (really 0.54cup)
For 75g brown sugar, use 1/3 cup packed brown sugar (really about 0.34 cup)
for 250g rolled oats, use 1 1/2 cup (really about 1/6 cups)

I hope that helps for all of us in the USA with our household measurements!

I tried this recipe this weekend using roughly the same proportions (and a combo of honey/ maple syrup instead of the sugars listed). Something went horribly wrong- I ended up with oats floating in sugary butter soup. I had assumed that 250 grams of oats is the same as 250 ml of oats (the metric part doesn't really throw me, but I'm used to measuring things by volume not weight). Anyone have an idea where I went wrong???

[BikerDar]

I tried this recipe this weekend using roughly the same proportions (and a combo of honey/ maple syrup instead of the sugars listed). Something went horribly wrong- I ended up with oats floating in sugary butter soup. I had assumed that 250 grams of oats is the same as 250 ml of oats (the metric part doesn't really throw me, but I'm used to measuring things by volume not weight). Anyone have an idea where I went wrong???

I'm intrigued by this recipe! I'm not so good with the metric, but I'm guessing that you really went astray with the oats. On the Quaker box, 1/2 cup is estimated as weighing about 40 grams. So if the recipe calls for 250 grams, that's a little better than 3 cups. I think 250 ml equals about 1 cup, at least it looks that way on my little pyrex measuring cup.

I even have some golden syrup from a friend in Australia who assures me I'll love it!

Gee two posts in a row mentioning Quaker Oats.......this is not a paid endorsement LOL

[lph]

I tried this recipe this weekend using roughly the same proportions (and a combo of honey/ maple syrup instead of the sugars listed). Something went horribly wrong- I ended up with oats floating in sugary butter soup. I had assumed that 250 grams of oats is the same as 250 ml of oats (the metric part doesn't really throw me, but I'm used to measuring things by volume not weight). Anyone have an idea where I went wrong???

Sorry for laughing, but yes, you went wrong The only thing that "weighs the same as it measures" is water, 250ml of water=250g=1 cup. Anything lighter than water, like oats, will weigh less per volume unit.

I'm smiling because I've spent a while trying to explain this to my son, who is gradually learning to cook, and we have had our fair share of "interesting" results when he forgets. We have a very handy measuring cup/dipper thingy that has the corresponding weight units for a few staples (rice, flour, sugar) already measured up and written directly on it so that you can just pour in.

[violette]

I tried this recipe this weekend using roughly the same proportions (and a combo of honey/ maple syrup instead of the sugars listed). Something went horribly wrong- I ended up with oats floating in sugary butter soup. I had assumed that 250 grams of oats is the same as 250 ml of oats (the metric part doesn't really throw me, but I'm used to measuring things by volume not weight). Anyone have an idea where I went wrong???

I made this last night with a few changes:

2 cups of rolled oats (instant)
1 cup bran
1/2 cup honey
1 cup light peanut butter
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup of sunflower seeds and raising (more or less)

Pat in a 8" x 8" baking pan. Bake at 350 for 30 min. cut and refrigerate.

I gave a sample to my husband and kids and I had to fight them off. My husband begged me to put some in his lunch...Ha ha!

[Zen]

Great energy bars....English flapjacks:

200g butter
175g golden syrup
75g brown sugar
250 g rolled oats

melt butter, syrup and sugar together. Stir in oats and add chopped nuts, raisins, chopped dried fruit or other additions to taste. Pack into square baking dish. Bake at 180C for about 25 mins. Let them cool completely before cutting and eating or they fall apart. I also pour melted chocolate on top before they cool completely.

Delicious!!! BF has been requesting new batches made every few days this month!

That sounds delightful but what is golden syrup?
Would our Kayro be the equivalent?

[uk elephant]

Yes, karo-syrup would be similar. Not as good as golden syrup, but close enough. I'm sure honey would work too, if you prefer staying away from the high fructose corn syrup stuff in karo.

[farrellcollie]

I have not had any trouble finding Golden Syrup here in the midwest - it does taste better to me than Karo Syrup ( love those flapjacks in the UK).

[michelem]

Hey mudmucker,

Funny you should mention brown rice syrup, 'cause that's what I ended up buying instead of the corn syrup. It's still sitting in my cupboard, waiting for me to make these things though!

[mudmucker]

I'm searching for homemade "on the bike" energy drinks and bars and came up with the following. Do these look like they'll do the trick, or not?

Energy Bars:

2 cups corn syrup
1 tablespoon honey
2 cups natural nut butter, preferably fresh ground
1 to 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon (or more) cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups protein powder

I'll use the various ingredients above but use brown rice syrup instead of honey, (and never corn syrup). The brown rice syrup is a bit of a more slowly digesting sugar (for me) and doesn't cause insane spikes in glucose levels.