No Bake Chocolate-Almond Protein Bars

I love this recipe because it is so quick and so tasty. I am excited to keep experimenting with homemade to-go snacks because:

1. They are so convenient. These are completely no bake so whether you are in a dorm room, apartment, wherever…you will be able to make these without a problem!

2. They are so much cheaper than the store bought bars (All of the ingredients for these cost me less than $3 for 16 bars!)

3. They are way healthier than store bought bars.

4. They are so much fun to make.

These took me about 15 minutes to make. They are totally guiltless! But, remember, ALL food should be guiltless. Unless you stole it :)

All you need…

• 2 cups quick oats
• 2/3 cups of your favorite granola (I used homemade pecan & date granola from a little flower farm, Miss Effie’s, about 20 minutes from campus.)
• 1 1/2 ripe bananas (I used medium size bananas. If you find a large one, just one banana will be just fine. The riper the better!)
• 2 tbsp vanilla protein powder (Chocolate would be tasty. I love the 100% whey protein and know a lot of people who swear by it. Also, this is an optional ingredient. I like to eat these when I am done with a long run so adding powder makes them a good recovery snack.)
• 1 1/2 tsp Truvia or any sugar or sweetener
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 1 packet or 2 tbsp of Justin’s Chocolate Almond Butter

If you haven’t tried this before, you should. It’s good on fruit, toast, with oats, in Greek yogurt, just plain. Seriously, too good to handle.

Throw all of the ingredients in a mixing bowl…

Stir, stir, stir. I started out with only one banana and it seemed a bit dry, so I threw another half in. That was almost too much. The stirring takes a minute or two. It seems dry initially, but then the moisture from the banana really starts to kick in. So have more patience than I did. Add more oats, granola, or banana to create an oatmeal cookie dough type consistency.

This type of consistency is what you are looking for! Maybe even a little dryer than this. But mine worked out just fine. Yummy! Try out this batter, super good. Perfect combination of almond taste and banana taste with some good crunches from the granola in there.

I wanted to make mini bars so each bar was made from a heaping tablespoon. Decide how big you want your bars to be and scoop away.

Here they are! I formed my tablespoons into 3×1 mini bars. I let them sit for a bit just to stiffen up and then they are all ready to go. This recipe gave me 16 perfect little treats. They are TOO yummy and so healthy. No added sugars, oils, nothin’! I am pretty proud of my Emma-original recipe.

Also, this is fantastic because it is dorm room friendly. (Sorry to all of my residence life friends who cringed when I said “dorm,” all of the other words just didn’t quite work). I have worked as an RA for the past two years for sophomore girls without kitchens and this year I finally have a kitchen in McCarthy, but I still love easy recipes. These kinds of recipes are great because everyone misses cooking when they don’t have a kitchen. And, remember, it is still possible to eat healthy and eat deliciously while in college. You just might need to be a bit creative.

Hope you all enjoyed the bars as much as I did! (I should say “as much as I am,” since I am on bar #3 as I type. Oops!) Be creative, let me know what changes you make! Some ideas- add chocolate chips, SPRINKLES (these could use some color), different nut butters, some chopped dried fruit. The options are endless. Have fun!