Homemade Protein Bars

Posted March 20, 2008 in Recipes 22 Comments »

Looking for something to take with you on the road, or a snack to munch at your desk? Forget about those awful Powerbars and other various soy bars. Granola bars are OK, but they don’t have much protein. High quality protein bars are available at the store, but for $5 a pop! We are looking for something cheap and easy, and here it is. Do-it-yourself, homemade protein bars.

Homemade Protein Bars

The Recipe

3 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups dried milk
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 cup lite syrup
2 scoops protein powder
2 large egg whites or 1 egg
1 1/4 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup raisins or dried fruit

Start by preheating the oven to 325 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with waxed paper, or spray on some non-stick butter flavored Pam spray. In a large metal bowl, mix all the ingredients until the oats are well coated. Spread the mix onto the cookie sheet and press down to make 10 cutting lines so you can separate them into 10 protein bars later. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. While still warm, cut them apart and allow to cool before wrapping. The bars can be stored airtight at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.

Optional Upgrades

Nutty Bars – use 1 cup chopped nuts instead of dried fruit or raisins.

Fruity Bars – experiment with various extracts other than vanilla to change up the flavor.

The Protein Bar Diet – make a whole bunch of these bars with various fruits and nuts, and various flavors of protein powder. Eat the bars for 3 out of 5 meals each day and make the other two meals small. Do this for a month and see if you don’t drop a couple pounds.

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22 Responses to “Homemade Protein Bars”

  1. Hi, Im vegetarian and dont eat eggs, is there any way that I could replace the egg with something else? 🙂

  2. It seemed a healthy attempt to try, but i don’t know where I went wrong , it was not smooth . I hope it turns out its true self the next time I try this. I will be even more careful possibly this time and bake it properly.

  3. i must have F’d these up somehow. the batter was runny and it look like 3x the baking time to get them to be not runny. anyone else have this problem?

  4. I forgot to mention if you are looking for an egg substitute for those who don’t eat eggs you can use 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed to 3 tablespoons water to replace 1 egg. It works perfect in this recipe!

  5. I ran the numbers on this recipe and the calories will be around 275 but that is completely dependant and what type of protein powder, if you use eggs or just eggwhites and what type of lite syrup, fruit and nuts you use. Also it is about 17g of protein but once again with different protein powder that can differ greatly.
    Note: I ran the numbers using eggwhites, protein powder with 30g a serving and raisins. No nuts.

  6. I think it would be great if instead baking the protein powder we could just come up with some sort of yogurt frosting with it incorporated into it…and as soon as i figure out how and what i’m gonna do it with i’ll get back to you’s lol.

    o by the way, not all protein bars on the shelf are bad..for instance those snickers marathon protein bars are really good actually and they taste BETTER than most too.

    • val:
      That is a great idea. Yogurt + protein powder could be used as a frosting or to make cookie sandwiches or something. The question is, how much protein can you squeeze into a tablespoon of yogurt frosting? Sounds like high-time to conduct some food experiments.

  7. Steve:

    I think these are a definite winner! I used lite corn syrup (the clear stuff), and regular slow-cook oats (since I had lots on hand). The result is something like the taste and texture of a Quaker Oatmeal Square, minus the frosting. I will add these to my assortment of good eats. Thanks for posting this recipe.

  8. Kelsey:
    I don’t mean to be a jerk, but I don’t have time to figure that out right now. I’m struggling to find time just to post. You can visit a nutrition website, possibly try fitday.com and you should be able to plug in all those ingredients and get a total nutritional breakdown for the bars. If you do this, please post your results back here, otherwise I’ll try to get to it eventually.

  9. I assume the egg is there as a binder – is there a substitute you can recommend for people who don’t eat eggs?

  10. Maple syrup actually. You can choose a lite syrup to cut the sugar in half. As far as protein flavors, I prefer chocolate and vanilla. Never tried strawberry or banana.

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