Bar Wars #2

This bar extravaganza is going to be known as BAR WARS from now on…

Ok contender #2: Averie’s Vegan No-Bake Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Protein Bars

Now, let it be known that I’m obviously not vegan or vegetarian; at this point in my life, (and probably never to be honest) I don’t have the desire to be.  But, I have tremendous respect for anything that takes work, discipline, and goes against the norm of “Let’s just be fat, lazy, unhealthy Americans”.

Music mogul and fashion designer Russell Simmons is a vegan.

As is Andre 3000, member of Outkast.

So here is how I made the bars:

*1 banana

*1.5 cups oats

*1/2 cup shredded coconut

1/2 cup craisins          (use raisins, dried fruit, the dog, whatever you want)

*1/2 cup sugar-free maple syrup          (use regular maple syrup, agave nectar, some sweet liquid I’ve never heard of if you want)

*1/2 cup peanut butter

* 1 serving of soy protein powder

*2 T flaxseed

* 1 /2 t cinnamon

*splash of vanilla

The steps are really easy:

1. Mash up banana in a big bowl.

2. Add all ingredients, just follow the list down and mix them up.  No bake really means no bake.

3. Flatten the mix into an 8×8 pan, tupperware container, anything.  I used half a 9×13.

Then you put them in the freezer for awhile to harden.  I think these things will need to be refrigerated after you cut them up to keep them firm.

The recipe makes 10 but you could cut them as small/big as you want.  If you wanna be greedy and have one big bar, go for it.

The nutritional breakdown for each bar looks like this:

197 calories

9.5 grams of fat

7 grams of protein

Using sugar-free maple syrup cut down the calories, and I also didn’t use 1/2 cup chocolate chips like the original recipe called for because I didn’t have any on hand.  If you were to use regular maple syrup and the chips, it would add about 82 calories and 2.5 grams of fat to each bar.

The verdict:

~These taste much better than my first round of bars.  They’re actually pretty good, a little on the soft side.  They definitely aren’t as dry because they have fat in them from the peanut butter and coconut.

~They’re a little higher in calories and don’t have too much protein.  If I were going to make them again, I’d probably add more protein powder or a filet of fish.  something.

~I really like that even though these are vegan and raw, they aren’t difficult to make, you can add in whatever toppings you want and they will still work. And the other big plus: there aren’t any funky, special ingredients that you have to take out a 2nd mortgage with bank of Whole Foods to get.

And this would be the chef de jour at 8am.  Yeah, that’s my snuggie.  I was missing some pants.  I don’t even know why.

Tagged as: bar wars