In an effort to eat healthier and give our kids some additional snack options we started looking for homemade protein bar recipes. Of course, we found dozens of options online with all kinds of ingredients.

Most of them had some ingredients we liked but also some ingredients we didn’t. We kept searching, but then just finally decided to create our own version.

We took the ingredients we liked and added a few of our own and created our own no-bake homemade protein bars. We think they turned out delicious and they’re pretty easy to make. Here’s what we did. (This post contains affiliate links as noted in our Amazon Associates Disclosure in the right sidebar.)

Chocolate protein powder and peanut butter are the two main ingredients. Our first batch was amazing because we used JIF Creamy Peanut Butter exclusively. They actually tasted like a candy bar. But, because we wanted these to be really healthy we switched to Costco’s all natural peanut butter.

As you might’ve guessed, they weren’t nearly as sweet. They were still good, but they didn’t taste like a candy bar. The kids ate them, but not as readily. So, we decided to compromise. Hey, we like candy bars, too.

Now we use half JIF and half all-natural fresh ground peanut butter from WinCo. For those with peanut allergies, we have made them with almond butter, too. They weren’t bad, but we prefer peanut butter and fortunately, everyone in our family can eat peanuts. But almond butter is an option.

Here are the rest of the ingredients that we use. This will make a batch that fills one 9×13 glass pan, but I usually double the recipe and fill two pans.

1 cup Peanut butter

¼ cup Honey

1 cup Dried Oats

¾ cup Chocolate Protein Powder of your choice. We’ve been using Muscle Milk lately. You can add more but you’ll likely need to add more water, too.

1 ½ tbsp. Ground Flax Seed

1 ½ tbsp. Chia Seeds

2 tbsp. Nesquik

Approx. ½ cup of Water

And here’s the step-by-step process to make them. You start by putting the peanut butter and honey into a microwave-safe bowl. Heat for 20 seconds, stir and then heat for 20 more seconds. You repeat this process, stirring after each time until it becomes easy to stir, usually 2 or 4 times.

Next, add all your other ingredients to the bowl and mix them all together. It will be very dry at this point so you add water in small amounts as needed until it reaches a moist consistency.

After you’ve created a nice big ball of chocolate goo, you place the mix into a 9×13 glass pan and flatten the ball down until it covers the entire dish. Put the dish in the fridge for an hour and let it set. This makes them easier to cut into bars.

Try not to let them sit in the fridge for more than an hour because they will start to dry out.

Remove them from the fridge, and then cut them to your desired size. I cut them into strips about 4.5 inches long and about 1 inch wide; this seems to be the right size for a snack without feeling like too much. They are filling.

Once cut, and removed from the dish, you need to store them in the fridge. It’s best to keep them in an airtight container. We separate each layer with wax paper so they don’t stick to each other.

They taste better than they might look

These protein bars are great. They make a quick, healthy, and tasty snack that you can eat on the go for a quick energy boost. Ready to try them yourself? Be sure to let us know how they turn out. Or share your personal recipe with us in the comments below.