How to make delicious snack bars on the cheap

(Image credit: (Photos by Mark Weinberg/Food52))

last updated 10 January 2015

I love supermarkets, but I feel unbridled adoration for bulk bin aisles especially. There is something very satisfying about scooping stuff into bags (see also: pick-and-mix candy stores, my truest love and biggest weakness). Something about getting exactly the amount of an ingredient that you need, so you don't end up with 7/8 of a box of nutritional yeast that sits in your pantry for all of eternity. Something about 15 types of raisins in a row. Something about paying absurdly less for quinoa than the same amount available in a pre-packaged box. I imagine it is the general store, and for this pound of almonds that I shoveled from a barrel I am trading in a live chicken. Probably that is not historically accurate, but this is a daydream I am having in Whole Foods, frozen in front of the dried mango with a scooper in my hand, deep in reverie, naming my imaginary horse. Anachronism is the least of my concerns.