Homemade peanut butter vanilla protein bars

Do you know how expensive protein bars are? Geez, they will break you and I don’t know about you, but they don’t taste very good. Homemade protein bars taste soooo much better and these Peanut Butter Vanilla Protein Bars will make it easy for you to grab a pre/post workout snack and not forget.

Check out the ingredient list on these – oats, rice cereal, peanut butter, maple syrup, protein powder, and salt. Simple, whole ingredients. If you don’t have fresh ground peanut butter, don’t stress – it’s just my preference for these, use whatever you have…or almond butter use what you like. I also use Orgain protein powder, just in case you were wondering. It’s just what I like, but if you have a vanilla powder you like, use that.

If you’re wondering what “firm press” is, this is what it looks like. Press it until you cannot press any further – this is important for them to stay together.

And this is what you get with a firm press, a perfect protein bar. These have 170 calories and 8 grams of protein per bar. And the best part is – my kids LOVE them. The first time I made them, I  didn’t add the chocolate, but it definitely takes it to another level.

You get 12 bars, but if you want smaller bites, you could get 24 smaller bars for smaller appetites. You could definitely play around with flavors too – chocolate protein powder would be amazing with almond butter.

Make these!

Homemade peanut butter vanilla protein bars

• Author: sarahpflugradt
• Prep Time: 10
• Total Time: 40 minutes
• Yield: 12 bars 1x

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

1 & 1/4 cups rolled oats

1 & 1/4 cups crisp rice cereal

2/3 cup fresh ground peanut butter

1/3 cup maple syrup

1/3 cup vanilla protein powder I used Orgain plant based powder

1/8 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 cup dark chocolate chips

1/2 teaspoon coconut oil

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Instructions

Using either a blender or a food processor, grind up the oats to a coarse powder

Transfer oats to a bowl and add rice cereal, peanut butter, maple syrup, protein powder, and salt

Mix ingredients together well

Line a 8×8 baking dish with foil

Press protein bar mix into the dish and press until firm

Refrigerate for 30 minutes

Remove from refrigerator and cut into rectangles

In a small microwave safe bowl, add chocolate chips and coconut oil

Microwave in 20 second increments until melted – stirring after each 20 seconds

Drizzle chocolate on each bar

Store in refrigerator

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