It seems ironic, a bake-at-home energy bar. Aren't energy bars all about convenience. Well yes, but the TrailBlaze bars by Matisse & Jack's are so easy to make and so tasty you will change your notion of convenient energy snack.

I love to bake and but all I had to do was preheat the oven, spray a pan with cooking spray, add some yogurt, water and vanilla to the mix. So easy. Plus they smelled amazing while baking. The mix contains organic whole grain oats, organic flax seeds, soy nuts and oat bran (among other recognizable ingredients). I made the cranberry walnut flavor so I got some bonus omega-3s too.

You have three options for the "wet" ingredients: original (vanilla non-fat yogurt and applesauce), dairy free (applesauce and water), or less sweet (plain non-fat yogurt, water and vanilla extract). I love having options!!! I made the less sweet, primarily because I was out of applesauce (the girls just eat it up). The bars were plenty sweet and the ladies around the office, myself included, loved them. You see, a bake-at-home energy bar tastes more like a baked treat more than a foil wrapped premade energy bar. Which brings me to another point. When eating the TrailBlaze bar, there's no wrapper to add to land fill and the box the mix comes in is made from 100% recycled paper board. Very cool!!!!

The Cranberry Walnut bars contain 9 grams of protein, only 4.5 grams unsaturated fat plus 3 grams of fiber. Each box makes 9 bars, baked in an 8x8 pan so each bar is a little under a square inch - a decent sized snack. The best part is that they contain no preservatives because they are not meant to sit on a shelf forever.

Buy the box mixes directly from Matisse & Jack's for $5.95 a box.