DONE AND DISTRIBUTED! Entire story below, written as time went on.

Initial Posting:
I'm posting my initial results because the task says I don't have to distribute the bars. I am going to distribute them, however. I have a couple of ideas. There are some people who stand at medians begging for change. I'd like to give some to them. I'll also ask some local shelters if they could use them.

I started by thinking about what I wanted in the energy bar. Knowing a little something about nutrition, I was determined to make sure each bar contained a complete protein. (Mini lecture on protein: There are 8 amino acids that your body cannot synthesize and therefore must be consumed in order to be able to build all the proteins it needs so it can function. Meat can give you all of these in one source, but it also gives you bad fats, cholesterol, and not much else that's actually good for you. Food scientists have learned that in order to get all 8 essential amino acids in one meal without eating meat -- and you should get them all three times a day because your body cannot store them -- you need to combine different kinds of foods, like grain + dairy, grain + legume, and legume + seed. Without these essential amino acids, your body's cells will very shortly cease to function. Getting all 8 essential amino acids in one sitting is called "getting a complete protein.") One of the best ways to do that here, I thought, was to include a grain and a legume. I like oatmeal and peanut butter, and I had plenty of each in my pantry, so I then set out to find a recipe online that included these two ingredients, as well as other things I already owned.

I finally settled on this one from About.com:

Quick Energy Hikers' Bars

Camping recipe courtesy of Lorraine

No bake and very nutritious!

Ingredients:

* 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
* 1/2 cup honey
* 1-1/2 cups peanut butter (I like chunky)
* 5 cups whole grain cereal flakes
* 6 ounces mixed dried fruit bits or cut your own favorites (put 1/3 cup aside)

Instructions:
In a saucepan, stir together brown sugar and honey. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add peanut butter, stir until smooth. Next, stir in whole grain cereal flakes; then add the dried fruit bits to the mixture. Spread into greased 12" x 7-1/2" x 2" baking pan. Spread 1/3 cup fruit bits on top and press into mixture. Let cool. Cut into 24 bars and wrap each bar in saran wrap. If desired, refrigerate before the trip.
Servings: 24 bars Preparation time: 20 minutes + cooling

I like it because I had all of the ingredients, it would provide a complete protein, it was a flexible recipe (you can use any whole grain cereal you like), it was fast to make, and it didn't require baking. It also included honey as a sweetener, and there's no better sweetener for you than a natural one. The dried fruits were a plus, as well, since everyone should get a little fruit in their diets. I also liked that it makes 24 bars. After my fiance and I each try one (and hopefully they really will be tasty), we'll still have 22 to hand out. That's a lot of energy.

I made the everything by hand, as you can see from the photos. There were just a couple of snafus. I ran out of chunky peanut butter, so I had to use creamy peanut butter for about half the recipe. I didn't manage to get all of the oats covered with the peanut butter/brown sugar/honey concoction, and had to sort of try to mush them in by hand after I'd already dumped the whole mess into the pan.

I decided that I wanted to make some chocolate frosting for the bars, since everybody deserves a little free chocolate every now and then. I used this recipe that I found on Hershey's Web site:

CREAMY BROWNIE FROSTING

3 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
3 tablespoons HERSHEY'S Cocoa
1 tablespoon light corn syrup or honey
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons milk

Beat butter, cocoa, corn syrup and vanilla in small bowl until blended. Add powdered sugar and milk; beat to spreading consistency. About 1 cup frosting.

I liked this recipe because it was a little bit fancier than some of the others, what with its corn syrup and vanilla extract. I would have used honey, but I wasn't sure I had enough left, and corn syrup is a pretty good sweetener, too. I also liked it because it didn't involve cooking at all. I tried to keep my use of appliances to a minimum, in honor of many hungry people who don't have easy access to such things themselves.

I haven't frosted the bars yet. I'm letting them cool at the moment, while the frosting firms up in the refrigerator. Instead, I took the time make up an Ingredients card that I can print out and put in with each bar. It's important that people know what they're consuming. I certainly don't want any allergic reactions due to people not knowing what's in the energy bars. Unfortunately, I don't remember all the fruit types in my dried fruit mix, since I'd been storing them in a plastic baggie sans the original container for quite some time now. That messes up my ingredients card a little, and hopefully fruit isn't a huge cause of major allergic reactions.

Here is the text of the Ingredients card:

Homemade Energy Bars

Bar Ingredients:
Rolled oats
Instant oats
Jif brand creamy peanut butter
Golden brown sugar
Jif brand crunchy peanut butter
Honey
Dried fruits, including raisins, golden raisins, apricots, dates, apples, and more

Frosting Ingredients:
Powdered sugar
Smart Balance brand buttery spread with flaxseed oil
Hershey’s brand powdered cocoa
Light corn syrup
Fat-free milk
Vanilla extract

I will update with some more photos when I've frosted the bars, cut them up and wrapped them, and hopefully I'll get some pictures of some happy recipients.

If someone wants to join me on this task, now would be a good time. I could use some help with distribution.

UPDATE: They have now been frosted. As you can see, I'm no artist. I am of the opinion, however, that the messier it is to make something, the tastier it tends to be in the end. My fiance assures me that the frosting is quite good. Too bad I didn't make more of it. I think the coverage isn't quite what I'd hoped for. Plus it was hard to spread. Currently, the batch is back in the refrigerator for the night, to firm it up. I'm busy tomorrow, but Sunday night, I'll hopefully be able to cut and wrap them, as well as print out the Ingredients cards.

UPDATE 6/25/06:

I've finally managed to distribute some of the energy bars!

I have some pictures, and a couple stories to tell, but they'll have to wait for the moment. I just wanted to let people know that some of the bars actually made it into the hands of the hungry. I hope to distribute more during the week, every chance I get.

UPDATE 7/19/06:

Okay, now that the wedding is over and the flurry of events following it has slowed slightly, I have some time to finish this story.

I tried and tried to find the hungry in San Jose, but I couldn't! Even the regulars at the street corners had disappeared. I feared some sort of conspiracy or kidnapping of the hungry. My fiance and I had to head up to San Francisco, though, so I once again I brought the energy bars with me in the car. I tried one just to make sure they were still fresh and edible, and they were.

As soon as we got to the city, I saw a man on the opposite side of the road with a cardboard sign that read "HUNGRY." He was perfect! Unfortunately, there were three lanes of traffic between him and us. It was Gay Pride Day in SF, too, so there was no way we could change lanes in time. I tried to get his attention, to no avail. I wanted to exit the vehicle, but my fiance convinced me it wouldn't be safe to leave a moving vehicle (even if it was only moving at 2 miles an hour), so I sadly stayed put. I thought about trying to throw one over, but I do really throw like a girl, so the most likely outcome of that would be either a flattened energy bar or a very angry driver.

A few blocks down there was another man with a sign, again on the opposite side of the street. His sign read, "I BET YOU CAN'T HIT ME WITH A QUARTER." Tim just about died laughing at that one. We were at a stoplight, so I stuck my arm out my window and tried to get the guy's attention. At almost the last second, I did, and he ran over. I gave him an energy bar and, because I felt a little guilty about making him run just for food, and because his sign was creative, I gave him a handful out of the change that I had in the car. I still feel a little conflicted about that, though.

In our trek to the Fisherman's Wharf area (where our business was), we saw only one other person who looked hungry. Unfortunately he was asleep. I still wanted Tim to stop the car so I could go leave a whole bunch of energy bars with the man. He just looked emaciated. He had his shirt off, and he was just wearing shorts, no shoes. I could see all the bones on him. I wished I could have done something.

Once we concluded our business, I went back to the car and got the energy bars. We wandered about the area looking for potential hungry people. The first one I found was an older man with a long white beard and a shopping cart literally mounded with stuff. I suppose he must have been homeless. I asked him if he wanted a homemade energy bar. He nodded. I gave him one, and he started in on it right away. I asked him if I could have my picture taken with him. He shook his head. So, I don't have a picture of him. He looked very wary. I tried to explain a bit about the Humanitarian Crisis, but he seemed more suspicious than interested. Still, he ate the energy bar. I walked away.

I thought a lot about my assumptions regarding hungry=homeless that day. I wondered if I should be offering the bars to people who were in line for lunch. I mean, they were hungry. But they weren't homeless. And I thought about the...well, for lack of a better phrase, "street population," and whether or not they were necessarily hungry or homeless. I questioned a lot of my assumptions that day.

The next person I encountered to whom I offered my energy bars was Albert. He was just sitting on the ground by the street. He had some Street Sheets. He looked fairly thin. He wore two T-shirts and no shoes. He accepted my offer, and I sat down with him and introduced myself. He agreed to have his photo taken. We talked for a while about the state of the street population. He was a little hard to follow, but I gathered that his opinion of the police was not a good one, but he felt gratified that it seemed that the mayor of SF seemed to feel the same way, in particular regarding the way the police deal with the homeless population. Albert himself was not homeless per se. He had a room at a men's hotel/hostel. He didn't like it, though, because he had to share a bathroom and he was afraid of getting diseases from the other tenants. He also said a better way to help the homeless would be to give out T-shirts. He wore two because that way he always had a spare that couldn't be stolen. I shook his hand, thanked him, and went on my way. I didn't buy a Street Sheet that day because I didn't want to feel like I did after I gave the first fellow some money. I wanted to try to keep the day all about this task.

At first when giving out the energy bars, I felt, "Yeah! I'm really doing something for a change. Not just donating money, but actually doing something." But then when I was asking for photographs, I felt like it seemed like I was just doing this for the points, like I was in some way exploiting the hungry or the homeless. I know in my heart that my intentions were good, but doing it this way, it still feels somehow tainted. I will have to do something more at some point. Something completely selfless I think. And then, continue to do it.

The next person I encountered was Jerry and his two dogs. One was named Trixie, but now I can't remember the other's name. Jerry and his dogs were very friendly. I sat and chatted with him for a bit, and also got my photo taken with him. He enjoyed talking about his dogs and interacting with them, and I got the definite sense that they were a good part of what kept him sane and happy living on the streets. I gave him two energy bars, and then two more for a friend of his that he mentioned. I wanted to talk with him some more, but the crowds were a bit much that day, so we gave each other a "Namaste" good-bye and went on our way. Ten steps later I realized I'd forgotten his name. I turned back and trotted closer to ask, but I scared his dog, who barked, who in turn scared some little kid into crying. Man, I felt like a total heel after that.

By then, we'd been wandering around for two or three hours. For some reason, all the hungry/homeless people weren't hanging around that area of town that time of day. I wondered briefly if the rest of them were hanging out with the San Jose homeless somewhere... Well, anyway, I only managed to give away six energy bars. In the following weeks, I took the energy bars with me just about everywhere, but didn't encounter a single soul who looked (to me) hungry enough to want some. No homeless whatsoever. Where the heck are they? Once again I thought about hungry people and what this task really entailed.

I guess I came away feeling slightly accomplished, and slightly embarrassed, and more than a little in awe of my own apparent naivete.