Peanut Butter Chocolate Crispie Protein Bars

With the upcoming school / fall season, life seems to get busier and busier by the minute. Though I have been out of school for a year now, I still feel the same stress I had during my school days when the seasons change. To start fall off on a good foot, I try to eliminate as much stress as possible by creating easy day to day routines that make everything flow smoothly. This includes making meals the night before, planning out my gym schedule, creating a to-do list, and of course: having plenty of snacks handy for those times when you are hangry (angry due to being hungry – it’s a real thing, I swear).

Snacks are a life saver. In college, classmates would always laugh because i’d be pulling snacks out of my bag left & right during class. Protein bars, oranges, rice cakes; whatever was in the pantry i’d chuck into my bag before school to make sure I wasn’t starving throughout the day. To this day, I remember a girl I was friends with in class saying “every time I see you you’re eating”. If anything sums me up, that’s probably it.

Alas, i’ve created the perfect protein bar that is made with wholesome ingredients, unrefined sweeteners, and a nice amount of protein. These bars are perfect for bringing to school and work, or keeping handy in the fridge when you need something to snack on.

For the base of the bars, I used Erewhon Cinnamon Crispy Brown Rice Cereal, which is made primarily out of brown rice, cinnamon, and maple syrup. Erewhon cereal is one of the few cereals i’ve stumbled upon that doesn’t use refined sweeteners so i’d definitely recommend picking some up. I’ve found that they offer a ton of different varieties that serve as a great base for bars, treats, etc. Coupled with the Erewhon rice cereal, I used old fashioned rolled oats to give the bars a few servings of whole grains.

For the rest of the ingredients, I used brown rice syrup, maple syrup, peanut butter, and protein powder. If you’ve never used brown rice syrup, it has a very similar consistency to corn syrup but is made out of brown rice. Amazing right? The more you know. (I ordered mine here). After totaling the entire recipe, these bars came out to less than $1 a piece which is WAY cheaper than buying pre-made bars and a whole lot healthier.

Try out the recipe below & let me know how you like them!

 

Peanut Butter Chocolate Crispie Protein Bars

Servings: 12 (depending on how you cut them)

• 2 & 1/4th cups Erewhon Crispy Brown Rice Cereal (or whole wheat rice crispies)
• 1 cup of oats
• 1/4th cup protein powder
• 1/2 cup brown rice syrup (or honey, or agave)
• 1/4th cup maple syrup
• 1/4th cup peanut butter
• 2 T mini chocolate chips (I use Enjoy Life brand)
• 2 T raisins
• 2 T chia seeds

1. Mix everything together until it’s all incorporated.
2. Once everything is mixed together, scoop it into a pan. I used a 5×7 but whatever you have will work just fine.
3. Press the mixture down with parchment paper until it’s all evenly pressed into the pan.
4. Melt 2 Tbsp chocolate chips until they are soft and runny, and add them to a plastic bag.
5. Cut the tip of the bag, and squeeze the warm chocolate over top the bars.
6. Place in the fridge to firm for 2 hours.
7. Enjoy 🙂

*These are best kept chilled due to the sticky nature of them but they are fine at room temp as well. The consistency is just a little softer.

A huge thanks & shout out to Attune Foods and Erewhon Organic for sponsoring this post. All opinions are my own.