Protein bars can be a great source of energy.  They can also be very expensive and taste like crap. I must have looked through 50 recipes online over the weekend looking for a good one. Most of this recipe is from one I found at Stella’s Kitchen.

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 cups quick oats
• 1 1/2 cups nonfat dry milk
• 4 scoops protein powder (I used chocolate)
• 1/4 cup flax seeds
• 1 cup sugar free maple syrup
• 2 egg whites
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup natural applesauce (unsweetened)

Directions

1. Beat the egg whites in a bowl
2. Mix the egg whites with the orange juice, applesause, syrup, and vanilla
3. In another bowl mix the oats, dry milk, protein powder, and flax seeds
4. Add the liquid mix to the dry mix and stir until everything is completely worked together. It will turn out similar to cookie dough.
5. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees
6. Spray a 9×13 baking dish with non-stick spray
7. Spread batter into the dish
8. Bake for 25-30 minutes
9. Allow to completely cool and then cut into bars
10. Store some of the bars in an airtight container and some in the freezer

Nutrition

I did some quick calculations for the ingredients I used and came up with a total of:

• 2240 calories
• 326g of carbohydrates
• 176g of protein
• 39g of fat
• 45g of fiber

I cut my pan into 12 bars which gives the following per bar:

• 187 calories
• 27g of carbohydrates
• 15g of protein
• 3g of fat
• 4g of fiber

Notes

You can easily leave out the flax seeds or add other ingredients to the mix. I plan to add nuts and maybe some raisins or dried fruit with my next batch.

You can cut back on the amount of applesauce if you want bars that aren’t as moist. With 1/3 cup of applesauce, the consistency comes out somewhere between cake and a granola bar. The baking time also probably has something to do with this. I had my first batch in the oven for about 27 minutes and the edges were just starting to become crusty.

If you try alternatives or have suggestions for improvements, leave a comment.