Since
are big on protein, there’s a lot of talk about protein supps and bars where I hang out too ….
Personally, there’s no commercial protein bar that I would dream of eating: questionable/crap ingredients (glycerin as a protein source???), too much sugar, chemicals, dubious labeling (that net carb stuff). Not to mention they taste nasty unless they’re loaded with sugar.
I make my own, using just four ingredients: chocolate protein powder, natural peanut butter, nonfat dried milk, and oatmeal. They’re fast and portable and you can cut them into whatever serving size suits your diet plan. Here’s the recipe, with the nutritional info, if anyone would like to try it. I make a batch every week.
Quote:
Protein Bars
2 cups protein powder of your choice (I’ve used chocolate Nitrotech, chocolate and vanilla MetRX, and chocolate Grow!)
1 cup uncooked oatmeal
1/2 cup nonfat dried milk
1/4 cup natural peanut butter, either smooth or chunky
Optional (see note below): nuts, dried fruit, chocolate chips, extra peanut butter
I use my Kitchenaid stand mixer with the flat beater to mix this, but you could mix and knead with your hands also.
Blend the three dry ingredients together. Blend in the peanut butter. Here’s the tricky part — add enough water to make a sticky mixture. The amount of the water depends of the brand of protein powder. For the ones I have tried (above), it’s between 3/4 and 1 cup of water. You don’t want it dry and crumbly, but not too wet and runny either. The consistency should be quite sticky. If you are not using a mixer, you’ll need to squeeze and knead this with your hands until it is blended.
Spray a 8x8 or 9x9 pan with PAM. Press the mixture into the pan evenly. I spray my hands with PAM also before I do this so it doesn’t stick. Refrigerate for a few hours and then cut into individual bars, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate.
I cut mine into six bars, but you could do eight if you wished. The nutritional info is based on six bars per pan, so you’d need to recalculate if you do eight.
Note: — if you are not too concerned about calories, you can add in extra peanut butter, dried fruit (raisins, dried cherries etc.), nuts, and/or chocolate chips. If you want to use any of these, just add them to the nutritional info and recalculate.
Nutritional Information (six bars per pan)
250 calories
26g protein
18g carbs
8g fat
