Protein Bars 1.0

Boy has it been hot this week! I think we are in day 6 of the heat wave that is supposed to be ending this weekend. I HATE hot weather. It's icky, I can't ever seem to find enough motivation and frankly I miss my sweaters. I love the beautiful sunny days, but I am an autumn girl..funny since I was born in Feb. I hate the super cold too...but I would rather it be freezing cold than grossly hot. 

Another thing I hate about the heat is that it is harder to bring snacks with me during the day. Banana's turn to smush and stink up the car, cheese get ucky too. A girl can only eat so many almonds. I love protein bars the problem is is that most of the ones on the market are covered in a "yogurt" substance or chocolate and again in the weather...not so appetizing. Or they are expensive...I love the Quest brand, especially vanilla almond crunch flavor but they do have some artificial ingredients in them, so I have been set out to make my own....I did some googling and found a bunch of recipes online and tried them out, changed ingredients, and came up with this...better yet it's a no bake! Welcome Protein Bar 1.0 experiment....

Recipe:

8 Scoops Whey Protein Isolate Chocolate Peanut Butter Flavoring ( I used this... )

3/4 Cup Raisins

1 Cup Natural Peanut Butter

3/4 Cup Crasins

1 1/4 Cup Whole Milk

6 Cups Oats

Instructions:

1. Prepare a 9/13 baking pan with wax paper

2. Place all ingredients into a large bowl

3. Mix...I used my hands was easiest.

4. Dump mixture into prepared baking pan press evenly

5. Place in refrigerator for 24 hours to set

6. Cut into desired amount of bars. 

I cut them into 26 bars, placed them into individual zip lock snack bags and put them back in the refrigerator. If no one but you eats them you may want to freeze some. 

Nutritional Stats:

Calories: 200

Carbs: 23

* Fiber: 3

* Sugar: 7

Fat: 7

Protein: 13

Sodium: 91

PROS:

* Easy to make

* No Bake

* Soft and Chewy (tastes like an unbaked oatmeal cookie)

* Minimal Ingredients (Most I had on hand)

* Can crumble to use on top of yogurt

CONS:

* Contains milk, need to keep in an insulated lunch bag on the go

* Need to be stored in the fridge not on the counter (I don't always have so much room in there)
* Super soft so they break apart easily making it hard to eat on the go

This was very successful but next round I will add some crunchy elements as it was to smushy mushy for me!

Enjoy ^.^
Laura <3