Where to buy energy bars for less?

[dloome]

Basically, I've figured out that I like energy bars a lot. I don't cook anymore and eat many of them a day. Actually, along with peanut butter, all I eat are bars. So light and compact, so nutritious, but so expensive. :( Anyone know where I can score cheap bars? Powerbars, Pemmican, Marathon, Balance, Clif, etc. Even buying by the case the cheapest I've found Balance bars is $1. Not too impressive when I can get them one at a time for $1.20. I've been keeping an eye on ebay and froogle with no luck yet.

I'll be looking to buy somewhere around 1,000 for a PCT hike next year, so if anyone could point me in the right direction I'd appreciate it.

[Ridge]

Sam's Wholesale Club...24bars (case) of Powerbars under $19

[kevin]

If you are willing to try homemade, I just watched an episode of "Good Eats" on FoodTV that featured a granola bar and protein bar. Haven't tried them yet, but probably be a lot cheaper and less "mystery parts" than many purchased ones. Here is a link

http://www.foodtv.com/food/show_ea/episode/0,1976,FOOD_9956_38665,00.html

[sarbar]

The Good Eats one are pretty good. I ate them a number of times last summer.

Though why anyone would actually want to live on energy bars is beyond me...don't you miss real food? The aroma? The taste? Energy bars to me are for only when I am starving with no time to stop.

[gsingjane]

My husband eats several nutrition bars a day (this is part of his regular diet, not instead of it, though). The best place I have found to purchase these is in a "job lot" store, oddly enough. I have found regular PowerBars, Pria Bars, Harvest PowerBars, PayDay Pro, and Optimum Energy bars at a place called "Ocean State JobLot." All the bars are priced at .50, and you basically "gets what you gets" on any given day. IOW, you don't always get your choice of flavors (except mint, which seems to appear ALL the time) but for the money, it's more than worth it.

Since the Ocean State is Rhode Island, and I'm pretty sure they don't have stores in Minnesota, obviously this particular store wouldn't work for you. But, I'm pretty sure they do have closeout or job lot stores all over, and I would strongly suggest giving these a try. I would never have believed I could purchase these so cheaply until a friend of mine provisioned MOST of a 3-month hike at Ocean State!

HTH,

Jane in CT

[Alligator]

I make it a point to pass where they are sold in the supermarkets while shopping. They just don't sell a lot near me, so usually some brand or other is on sale. I scored 3 boxes of 6 count Snickers Marathon bars for $2.00 each a little while back. (These are pretty good BTW.) Just watch the exp. dates.

Sam's also has the Marathon Bars, and I would check some of the other stores of similar type for cases.

[Kevin A. Boyce]

I also have found decent prices at Target... Not a great selection of flavors, but often at .75 cents a bar if you buy them by the box. They have the usual brands... Clif, Pria, Zone Perfect, Balance, but they are generally 6 bars/box size, not the two dozen size boxes.

Also check bikenashbar.com... They do a nutrition sale every few months, and many times have bars by the box on sale. They may not have your favorite flavor at the time, so keep checking.

Catch you later...
KevBoy

[Ewker]

I have made these before.

Mix the following dry ingredients thoroughly:
1 ½ cup instant one minute oats
1 cup dried banana chips, chopped fine
½ cup chopped prunes (can omit or exchange for something else)
½ cup chopped apricots
½ cup dried chopped pineapple
1 ¼ cup chopped walnuts
1 cup flour
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 cups pure maple syrup, grade B is best
1/4 cup canola oil

Mix the dry ingredients together first, then mix in the liquid ingredients. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9" by 13" metal cooking pan with PAM. Spread this thick mixture into the pan. Cook 50 to 55 minutes. Cool completely at least an hour. Cut into bars. Freeze the bars in sandwich sized baggies for your lunch or snack. If you cut the pan into 4 large bars, each bar will have 1,044 calories. If you cut the pan into 6 bars, each bar will have 696 calories.

[Rendezvous01]

An even simpler bar:
1 stick butter

[Rendezvous01]

Whoops, hit wrong button, try again:
A simple energy bar:
1 stick butter
18 oz. jar peanut butter
1 cup mini marshmallows
1 cup honey
Bring to boil, stirring to mix thoroughly
Add
1 cup powdered milk
1 box Kashi Go-Lean crunch cereal, crushed
Line 9 x 13 pan with wax paper, spread mixture, let cool, cut into bars.
I have variations, suggestions, and more details if you want to PM me.

Ron

[dreamhiker]

I have thought about only using energy bars on my thru in the futer. I could drop alot of weight by doing this and there are always the towns for a good full meal from time to time. What do you guys think about this?
DreamHiker

[Ridge]

I have thought about only using energy bars on my thru in the futer. I could drop alot of weight by doing this and there are always the towns for a good full meal from time to time. What do you guys think about this?
DreamHiker

You'll get tired of them pretty quick, and you'll spend alot of bucks on'em.

[gsingjane]

Dreamhiker, maybe you could try going out for 4-5 days and only taking the bars, and see how you feel about it when you get back.

Doing this on a very long-term basis might lead to some serious nutritional weirdness. For instance, I'm looking at a PowerBar Harvest Toffee Chocolate Chip bar right now. It is 250 calories, so assuming you needed 3000 calories a day, you would have to eat 12 of these. (Of course not that you would ONLY eat this particular bar, but I'm just using it as a basis for now). According to the label, 12 bars would give you 155% of your daily allotment of saturated fat, 240% of your daily allotment of fiber, and 192% of your daily allotment of protein. Maybe none of this would be a problem, although I'd be a little concerned about overloading on saturated fat every day for that long a period.

On the nutrients front, consider the following. Eating the same 12 a day, you'd get 480% of the recommended daily dosage of calcium - same for niacin, riboflavin, and biotin. You'd get 960% of the recommended daily dosage of the following: vitamin C, vitamin E, folate, vitamin B-12, and pantothenic acid. Is this really something that would be smart to do for this period of time? It's hard to say... maybe all this excess stuff would just wash out, maybe it wouldn't. But I do think it's worth considering and doing some research and numbers crunching before you make a decision one way or the other.

Jane in CT

[Hana_Hanger]

Dreamhiker, maybe you could try going out for 4-5 days and only taking the bars, and see how you feel about it when you get back.



Jane in CT

Great idea a test run...for no matter how great the bars are even if they are all natural etc... I find they all began to taste like cardboard after awhile.:eek:
but of course I really have never tasted cardboard but it reminds me of it!:p

[Granola Mamma]

Wanted to put up some info on granola bars and this seems like the right place. I hope I don't do anything wrong as it's not intentional. Just to let anyone know, our family runs a small gourmet granola bakery and our main business is our granola/energy bars including protein bars. If anyone is interested we also do granola cereal. We have a WB discount of 10% off of every order for WB members. Just go to www.hearthstringfoods.com (http://www.hearthstringfoods.com) and when you check out of the cart you can pay with Paypal and at the bottom you'll see where it says "promotions", just put in WB2006 and you'll get the discount. Anyone can use this if they are a member of WB. Let us know if you have any trouble with it by emailing as this is a new promotion for us and we want to be sure it's working. You'll find we have over 50 flavors, and we are working at getting them all up on the site. Popular for summer are Peach Cobbler, NC Honey Almond, Key Lime Pie, Double Chocolate Peanut Butter, New England Cherry Pie, Coconut Cream Pie, Watermelon Mania, Bubble Gum Yum, etc. You get 12 bars for $15 plus shipping. The granola and bars are all made fresh for you when you order. Please stop by and let us know what you think. You can also get a free sample of granola right now so check it out! Our bars are available at Home Economist Health Foods, Dean and DeLuca of Charlotte, Dilworth Coffee of Lake Norman area and Winston-Salem, and our granola is featured on the club level of the Grove Park Inn and Spa of Asheville.

Hope this helps!
Cassandra.