Bar Wars, Return of the Laras
What’s your favorite bar? Lately, I seem to keep striking out on the bar front. Maybe the powers that be are just trying to tell me: Stop looking; you’ve already found more than enough that you love (Wilds, Jocalats, all varieties of fudge baby bars, and on and on). But even though I have enough variety, flavor-wise, to never be bored, curiosity gets the best of me each time I see a fun new product. I just love trying new things!
The latest: I finally tried the Larabar carrot cake bars that came in my surprise package from the company. Sad to say, I was, once again, underwhelmed. They weren’t bad or anything, but my own carrot cake bars are better. So, naturally—still craving carrot cake (Aren’t I always?), I had to go and make some homemade bars.
(I’m not the only one with a carrot addiction. These three guys apparently share my love!)
I topped off my homemade Carrot Cake Bars with coconut butter and carrot.
Lesson to be learned: coconut-butter-topped bars > coconut-butter-less bars every single time. The poor Larabars never stood a chance.
And there I go with the fake flowers again. Signature CCK. Hey, don’t hate on the fake flowers: they’re easier to take care of (no watering!) and they don’t die ;). But perhaps I, at least, need to invest in some new colors!
Above, Larabar meets homemade Carrot Cake Bar.
I don’t not recommend the carrot cake Larabars: If you’re a fan of dried pineapple, you’ll probably like them, because that’s all I tasted. Actually, to me they taste exactly like the apple pie Larabars with added pineapple. But my favorite Larabars are still—and probably always will be—the chocolate Jocalat bars. ‘Cause on them, you can perform the Brownie trick, taking these bars from yummy to YUMlicious!! Just a few seconds in the microwave leads to pure chocolate-brownie bliss. In summary: for carrot cake, I’ll stick to my bars. However, when it comes to chocolate, nobody does it better than Lara!
Microwave Brownie Trick:
- Unwrap a Chocolate Jocalat bar, and place on a microwave-safe plate.
- Microwave for about 15 seconds, then open the door and turn.
- Then microwave 10 seconds.
- Open door (to let some heat out) and microwave 10 more seconds if you want it really melty.
(Don’t microwave too long; burnt chocolate’s a party pooper.) If you want the baked-brownie taste but not the mess of the melted chocolate, you can put the cooked Jocalat in the fridge or freezer so all the melted chocolate re-hardens. Oh goodness, raw foodists hate me right now, don’t they??
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Sending HUGE thanks to all who defended me on yesterday’s post.
I won’t even mention the negative, but I can’t go without telling y’all how much your supportive comments meant to me. Actually, your kind comments always mean a lot to me; I don’t thank you enough. Thank you!!
Those look freaking awesome! Like mini carrot cakes! I must make them asap!
This looks delicious! I like the carrotcake my aunt makes but always seem to mess up my own….How did you make this?
If you click on the blue words “carrot cake bars” it’ll take you to the recipe :).
Ugh..those look so good with coconut butter on them! I’m supposed to have a box of coconut butter coming, but it isn’t here yet!!! All I can think about when I eat is, “this would taste so good with some coconut butter on it” examples: carrot-apple bran muffins, tortilla with chocolate coconut butter, banana chocolate muffins…
I totally agree with you about the carrot cake larabars — yours look way better anyway.
I saw the comments yesterday, and all I can say is I’m sorry you have to deal with stuff like that and I’m sorry there are people like that in general.
YUM!!! Your bars look so much better!!!
Yo, those carrot cake bars of yours look crazy awesome!! I’m sooo gonna try that! I’ll still probably try the Larabars when Whole Foods here gets the new flavors, but homemade is always better…unfortunately I don’t know if the coconutty topped ones would survive in my purse. 🙂
On yesterday’s post, I’m so f***ing sick of douche holes saying mean things about your weight. Honestly, I think those people are probably actually anorexic and are jealous of your natural weight. Don’t let it get it to you. We got your back. I can get buck if I need to. 🙂
Ugh I started to read the mean comments but stopped after 3, they were making me SICK. I swear, everytime time I check in my wordpress stats to check what people typed in google to find my blog and see ”chocolate covered katie anorexic” I want to destroy the computer screen. Like, don’t you have better things to do…??? (end of rant)
I’ll go check the carrot cake katiebars recipe, thanks 🙂
I used to be obsessed with Larabars, but have dropped them recently in favor of yummier home-baked treats 🙂
But yes I do love Jocolat too!
Your carrot cake bars are so vibrant! I agree the Carrot Cake Larabars were underwhelming. I love the peanut butter Larabars, but can just as easily make my own. Buuuuttt I still buy them.
Curiosity also always gets the best of me, too. =]
Coconut butter on bars – you truly are a genius Katie!
Ah, the bloggie drama. It’s funny because my husband and I were just talking about “rude commenters” a couple of days ago. I watched a utube cooking demo done by Gwyneth Paltrow, and some of the comments were just nasty – including “that is the ugliest dude I have ever seen.” I told my husband about it because I couldn’t believe how people had no respect for others feelings. I mean – even stars get their feelings hurt I am sure!
But, on that note he explained to me the dynamics of the internet. Apparently, there are many anonymous commenters out there whose sole purpose is to get reactions. Sounds really lame to me, but I guess it gives them a hoot. So when they see the opportunity to slander and go for reactions, they go for it. An attention thing. He said never take those things personally as they really aren’t intended to be personal, that is just what those people do.