Homemade Protein Bars

I have always been a health-conscious person, which is fundamentally at odds with my love of all things sweet and buttery. But most days I try to keep things pretty healthy: lots of fruits and veggies, exercising, not going overboard on sweets. However, my attempts to get in shape are always hindered by the fact that I am not a breakfast person. Don't get me wrong, I love breakfast foods, but I tend to eat little to nothing in the mornings, which means I'm starving by lunch. I'm really just not interested in food first thing in the morning--I'm not interested in anything except going back to sleep.

So throughout high school and college--if I ate at all in the morning--I would either eat a protein bar or drink a shake. But the high quality protein shakes and bars are pretty pricey, and lots of them are 200+ calories with sugar in the double digits, and who knows what other chemicals? So I began to look for alternatives, and I happened upon this recipe for homemade protein bars: http://goo.gl/r1fcw. Now, I tinkered with it and made it my own, but the credit for the original recipe goes to Project Swole. 

I wanted to make 2 kinds of bars: a fruit one for breakfast and a chocolate/almond one for an afternoon snack. Here's how they turned out:

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups Quaker oats

1 1/2 cups dry milk

1 tbsp cinnamon

3/4 cup lite syrup

2 scoops whey protein powder (I used a vanilla one)

1 egg

1 1/4 cup fruit juice (I used a blend including orange, grape, pineapple, and mango)

1 tsp vanilla extract

For fruit bars: 

1 cup dried fruit mix 

For chocolate-nut bars: 

1/4 cup toasted almonds, chopped

half a bar of good quality dark chocolate, chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with foil, forming a divide in the center of the foil if you want to make both kinds, or your own versions. Spray the foil with cooking spray.

2. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients except your dried fruit/nuts/chocolate/what have you. The mix will look fairly wet.

3. Divide the mixture into 2 separate bowls and add in your fixins (here we have chocolate and almond on the left and fruit on the right).

4. Spread the mixes onto the cookie sheet. (See how I have a foil divider in the middle?)

5. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until golden brown.

6. While they're still warm, cut them into whatever size you prefer. I found that it was easiest to do this by removing the bars from the cookie sheet by lifting the edges of the foil and transferring onto a cutting board. Cut the bars while still on the foil, then carefully flip the foil over and peel it off. This prevents you from having to cut and lift out each bar individually, running the risk of breaking them apart. 

7. Let cool then wrap in cling wrap. You can store these in an airtight container at room temp for 2 weeks.

Just in case you're wondering, the fruit bars have approximately 109 calories, 6g of protein, and 9g of sugar. The dark chocolate/almond ones have 88 calories, 4g of protein, and 8g of sugar. The sugar mostly comes from the syrup and the fruit juice, so if you'd like to make lower-sugar bars, you would have to find alternative ingredients to add the sweet, moist element. The next time I make them I might try something less sugary. 

The way I cut the bars, I ended up with 12 fruit and 10 chocolate/nut. You can make them as big or small as you want, but that will change their calorie count.

Now I have something cheap, delicious, and low-cal for my breakfast and afternoon snack for the next 2 weeks! We'll see if I can drop a couple pounds...