Sweet and Salty Snack Bars with Attune Foods

Snack bars laden with salty nuts, healthy whole grains, and a bit of creamy chocolate to tempt your sweet tooth are just what you need to get through the day. Introducing my new partnership with Attune Foods.



2:30 p.m. Your coffee cup is empty. Sure, you could fill it, but at this point you’re starting to wonder if the three cups from the morning and the one you had immediately following lunch aren’t just a bit too much caffeine. Your gut is starting to swirl in that rotten sort of way where it’s rejecting absorbing any more of the dark liquid gold that comforted and warmed you earlier in the day.

Yawning, you tilt your head from right to left, stretching and cracking the slight bones in your neck. Joints ache. Dinner pops into your head, though there are a good two and a half hours of the workday left. Stuff the thought down, force it into the abyss, and stare at the computer screen.

3:00 p.m. The knot in your stomach isn’t getting better. Defeated, you decide on a snack. A glance in the refrigerator tells you there will be no help from within its cold white walls. The cupboards tell tales of snacks that were. Refill your water. Cold is refreshing but not filling. You can feel it slide down the back of your throat and all the way to your stomach. Empty.

Vending machines call your name. Rows of peanuts and nougat covered in chocolate. Greasy chips and yellow twirls promise the salt you crave. A crumpled dollar appears in your hand, though you can’t remember taking it from your pocket. Your stomach flips, your mouth fills with saliva as you anticipate the simple act of eating. Pressing the dollar between your fingers, you attempt to smooth the wrinkles. Grasping both ends, you run it over the black edge of the vending machine, pressing it flat. A snack is just moments away.

It’s been years since I’ve worked anywhere that even afforded the opportunity to hit up the vending machine. Still, there are plenty of situations daily where the afternoon hour can seem to drag on and dinner can’t come soon enough. Whether you are out at the library, watching your kids’ sports teams in the school gym, sitting in an airport traveling to a far-off destination, returning home from a long day at school, or any number of possibilities, it’s a difficult time of day.

Simple and sustaining, these snack bars give you a bit of all that you crave. Salted nuts and whole grain cereal combine to get you through until dinner, and a slight bit of chocolate makes them feel just a bit naughty. Wrap them up and stuff your desk drawer full of them or make a pan to set out for when the kids get home from school. Grab the recipe for the Sweet and Salty Snack Bars over on the Attune Foods blog.

A new year brings new opportunities, and I’m excited that 2013 seems to be happily spilling them my way. I’m thrilled to have the chance to work with Attune Foods. You may recognize their line of cereals as Uncle Sam and Erewhon, their organic graham crackers, or their probiotic chocolate bars. I’ll be sharing recipes and thoughts monthly over on their blog. I personally couldn’t be more pleased to be working with a company that believes in “simple, pure ingredients that help you feel your best every day,” and “…improving the way we eat at home, in our local community, in our nation and someday worldwide.”