Daily Archives: September 2, 2013

Sep 2

Snack Time: No-Bake Protein Bars

protein barWho’s a snacker? I am. I have to since my blood sugar gets low and I get tired and I might yell at you and please, hide the weapons. My go-to snacks are often nuts and raisins, protein shakes, chocolate, chips, crackers, fruit, veggies, hummus, wow I snack a lot. I tend to eat smaller meals more often so it’s just part of how it goes. I can’t eat if my stomach is too full and it gets full quickly.

I found these protein bars of Angela’s over at Oh She Glows (great vegan blog, lots of GF things too). But, a half cup of maple syrup is too much sweetener for a snack for me, plus the price of maple syrup is nuts. So I thought I’d adapt it to stevia-sweetened only. Angele says she doesn’t like the taste of stevia, which I understand, since I didn’t for awhile either until it was my only choice.

When you adapt sweeteners in a recipe, you have to figure out what purpose the sweetener was playing: just sweetness, liquid, binder? In this case, the maple syrup was a binder as well as a sweetener. So I added coconut oil and milk to help add liquid and bind. Plus coconut oil is good for you. I also adjusted Angela’s recipe by using a crunched up rice cake instead of rice cereal, since cereal is often sweetened and also because I didn’t have any.

ingredients

This is not a bring-to-your labor-day picnic-down-the-block bar, especially with the sweeteness dialed back in my version. It’s more of a breakfast bar, snack, and for an diner that already had some experience with health foods.

Quick ‘n Easy No-Bake Protein Bars–stevia style

Vegan, gluten-free, sugar-free
 1 1/2 cups gluten-free rolled oats, blended into a flour
1/2 cup protein powder (I used Vega One raspberry)
1/2 cup rice cereal or plain rice cake, crushed
1/2 cup all natural almond butter or other nut/seed butter
1/4 tsp plain liquid stevia
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
1/4 cup coconut milk (like So Delicious brand) or other nondairy milk
1/3 cup pieces of dark chocolate bar, crushed (optional, omit to make sugar-free)
1/4 cup raisins

Directions:

  1. Line an 8-inch square pan with a piece of parchment paper. Mix the oat flour, protein powder, rice crisp, and salt together in a large bowl.
  2. Add in the nut/seed butter, coconut oil, coconut milk, and vanilla. Stir well to combine. If the mixture is a bit dry, add a splash of non-dairy milk and mix again.
  3. Stir in raisins and chocolate chunks if using.
  4. Press into pan and press down flat. Pop into the freezer.
  5. After freezing the bars for about 5-10 minutes, remove from freezer and slice into bars.  Store in the freezer for a week or longer in an air-tight freezer bag or container.
After I had already used the Blender, I decided to blend more raspberry protein powder, frozen berries, and coconut milk for a cold treat on a hot and muggy day.
raspberry protein shake
Have a good labor day!