Hey guys! How’s it going? It’s been about 3 weeks since I’ve finished up with my third year of university so now it’s all about that summer job. Where I live – the job market kinda sucks. Several friends of mine are having trouble landing positions but luckily for me, I’ve already secured a job for the summer and I’ll be starting next week. So, in honour of heading back to work, I thought I’d come up with a new healthy, energizing snack that you can bring to munch on at work!
Let me just say that I stopped eating packaged granola bars back in my freshman year of university. I used to think they were the bomb. News flash: not so much. Just like several other packaged snack foods, there’s often added sugars/other things that you don’t think of when you’re purchasing that 100% whole-grain, high fiber, low fat granola bar. And honestly, it’s pretty simple to just make your own at home. I always feel better knowing exactly what has gone into making what I eat.
I’ve always wanted to make a homemade granola bar recipe that doesn’t use dates. While I love using dates in recipes, they’re often quite expensive and I know many of my readers are on a college student budget. I also wanted to add some protein to these bars for two reasons. 1) I’ve been trying to incorporate some more protein (from various sources) into my diet and 2) I had some protein powder I wanted to use up!
The recipe is pretty simple and the steps are extremely easy to follow. Feel free to mix it up and add things like dried fruit, other seeds, or whatever instead of chocolate, chia seeds and coconut. These granola bars are chewy, yummy and so healthy! Chocolate Coconut Chia Protein Granola Bars Ingredients:
- 2 cups oats
- 1/4 cup vanilla protein powder
- 1/4 cup ground flaxseed
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 cup all natural nut butter of choice
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/2 cup almond milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup chia seeds
- 1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8×8 baking pan with waxed paper and set aside.
- Combine oats, protein powder, flaxseed, cinnamon and sea salt in a large mixing bowl.
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine nut butter, honey, almond milk and vanilla extract. Pour this mixture into the dry mixture and fully incorporate.
- Add chocolate chips, chia seeds and coconut to the mixture.
- Pour into lined baking pan and firmly press down so the mixture fills the pan evenly. Bake for 20 minutes until browned. Remove from oven and let cool (about 20 minutes) before cutting. Makes 6 larger or 8 medium sized granola bars.
Enjoy guys! 🙂 xo Hannah
Today will be Delicious 