To continue the trend of using the kitchen before everything else is completely unpacked, my dear husband asked me to bake something for him. Granted, this was a recipe he could have easily done himself, but he doesn't enjoy baking as much as I do, and sends anything remotely baking-centric my way.
Matt eats a lot. I'm talking almost 3000 calories-a-day a lot. So he's always looking for things to fill him up that don't take a whole lot of time once they're already prepared. We try our very best to keep things clean. Yes, it's hard, and some days are better than others... But for the most part, I think we do pretty well, and over time, it's just gotten engrained into our habits. We are always trying new recipes and looking for new ideas to incorporate clean ingredients.
Matt had been looking for a clean recipe for granola bars that was high in protein, low in sugar, hearty, and easy to make. He noticed that a lot of the protein/granola bars in the organic and gluten free sections of the grocery store still contained a lot of other ingredients, so he wanted something we could make at home. Not only would it be clean, but it would be cheaper, too!
He came across this recipe, and we adapted it a little bit. If you would like to use the original, feel free. This is the recipe I used:
- 2 cups of oats-- roasted without oil
- 1 cup natural peanut butter
- 1/2 cup agave nectar
- 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 2 tablespoons mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup whey protein powder
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Layer your oats in a thin layer on a baking sheet.
Toast oats for 10 minutes, moving them around with a spatula halfway through to prevent scorching or burning. Remove from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes.
Reduce oven temperature to 325ºF. Combine all of the other ingredients into a large mixing bowl, stirring with a spatula.
We use all natural peanut butter. This means there is nothing else but peanuts and salt. Period. JIF, Skippy, all the "big name" companies make "natural" peanut butter, but they all have added sugar. Do yourself a favor and try actual natural peanut butter. Our favorites are Giant brand and Smucker's.
When measuring peanut butter, wet your measuring cup and spatula. You'll be able to remove the peanut butter much more easily.
If you're not familiar with agave, it's a wonderful thing. It's all natural and doesn't change the taste of whatever you're putting it in. Plus, since it's liquid, it dissolves in beverages much more easily than sugar. If you choose to use honey instead, crank your oven up to 350ºF. I reduced my temperature because my research told me agave burns faster than honey. Word of advice: always know your ingredients when making substitutions. This includes the ratio of substitution (honey and agave are 1:1).
This is the whey protein we use. It's nothing but pure protein and tastes like nothing at all. We buy it in bulk from Amazon and add it to many "regular" things (smoothies, yogurt, milk).
Once incorporated, stir in cooled oats. Press into a 9"x13" baking dish and bake for 20-22 minutes. Allow to cool and cut into desired size bars (we cut into 12).
I found this mixture to be very sticky. Once I dumped it into the baking pan, I wet my hands to spread out the "batter" with my fingers. Much easier and cleaner than trying to spread it with my spatula!
The end result.
The only thing not clean about this recipe is the chocolate chips. If you would like to keep this recipe 100% clean, either omit them, replace them with something else, or use grain sweetened chocolate chips.
Our opinion of these is that as far as protein bars go, these are pretty good. I'm not going to run and tell the neighbors we've got a sweet treat for them to try after dinner tonight, but I would definitely not call these a bust at all. I will probably try to tweak some things to make them better, but for now, they get the job done, are filling, and are pretty tasty!
No comments:
Post a Comment