I like a meal substitute called Meal Squares. The company recently switched from version 1.0 to version 2.0. They're basically different products in terms of taste and texture, although they're both trying to be complete, whole-food squares.
1.0 are bready, don't keep as well, and aren't as appetizing. 2.0 has more of a snacky, fruit-leather feel more typical of meal replacement bars. Personally, I prefer the 1.0 version (snackable is a negative for me).
The CEO, Romeo Stevens mentioned during the new product launch:
We'll be open sourcing the 1.0 recipe for those who want to bake them at home.
After emailing him a reminder that it wasn't posted anywhere, he kindly emailed me the recipe back. I'm posting it online for anyone else that wants it in the meantime. Thanks, Romeo!
Meal Squares 1.0 Recipe (.txt version)
Makes: 24 squares ( 4-square silicone mold available from Michael's )
Date syrup
- 225g Date paste
- 120g Vegetable glycerin
- Small amount of water if needed for consistency
Liquid:
- 5 eggs
- 1.5oz Orange juice concentrate
- 2 cups Evaporated milk
- 100g Applesauce (unsweetened)
- 100g Pumpkin puree
- 135g Coconut oil
- 77g Olive oil
Dry:
- 500g Oat flour
- 300g Whey protein concentrate (unflavored)
- 200g Chocolate chips
- 160g Sunflower seeds
- 135g Rice bran
- 85g Carrot powder
- 20g Garbanzo bean flour
- 25g Iodized salt
- 5g Sunflower lecithin
- 5g Pumpkin spice
- 2g Baking soda or 8g Baking powder (warning! Baking sodas vary quite a bit by brand and whether it includes aluminum, we used the less potent aluminum free baking soda for mealsquares, experimentation needed for small batches.)
Optional:
- 15g Potassium citrate (can be omitted for small hit to potassium content)
- D3+K2 drops (varies by brand, add enough for ~500% your DRI since this is about 5 days of Mealsquares)
- Liquid calcium folinate (same as above)
- Niacinamide (same as above)
- Lactase (added to condensed milk if lactose intolerant)
- Over low heat, combine date syrup ingredients. Stir until homogenous.
- Mix liquid ingredients, including date syrup.
- Mix dry ingredients.
- Combine wet and dry ingredients. Consistency should be like peanut butter or slightly thicker. Add (small amounts) liquid water if too thick.
- Bake at 350, time varies wildly by oven design, and edges may overcook while centers undercook. You will likely need to pull them out of the oven at the 2/3 baking point and flip the molds around to avoid this and get even results.
- Packaging: remove as much air as possible to avoid them going stale in the fridge.
Notes:
This recipe could likely be optimized with the substitutions of some milk protein powder for condensed milk and some tapioca syrup for vegetable glycerin. These optimizations were only discovered as we were moving towards production of Mealsquares 2.0 so were never implemented in 1.0. Would require experimentation for water content and baking times etc.