Quick No Bake Protein Bars using 5 Ingredients

My husband started a goal to lose some weight this year

And one of the things he wanted was protein bars to help him with that

I am also pumping breastmilk for a milk bank so extra protein is always welcome

The probelm is that storebought protein bars are expensive and usually taste terrible

So, like I often do, I started making them myself 

Is it cheaper to make your own protein bars?

To figure this out, we need to take the ingredients and figure out the cost

I bought my bag of protein powder for $32, peanut butter for $6, maple syrup for $16, and chocolate chips for $3

I don’t use nearly all of each ingredient so we can break it down further 

There are about 8 cups of peanut butter in my jar so it is 75 cents per cup

There are about 5 cups of protein powder in the bag so that is $6.40 per cup

There are 4 cups of maple syrup in a jar so thats $4 per cup

And there are 2 cups of chocolate chips in a bag so that’s $1.50 per cup

We use 3.5 cups of peanut butter ($2.63), 1.5 cups of protein powder ($11.52), ½ cup of maple syrup ($2), and a cup of chocolate chips ($1.50)

So it costs me $17.65 to make this batch of protein bars

I can easily get 30 bars from one batch

So it costs me 59 cents per bar to make

It costs $6.50 to buy chocolate peanut butter protein bars at my store and the box comes with 4 bars

That makes buying them $1.63 each bar

When you break the cost down like this, you can see that it is much cheaper to make protein bars than buy them

And they taste good!

What sweeteners can you use in protein bars?

I use maple syrup in my protein bars, but you can use honey or sugar if you wanted to

Sugar is the least preferred since it is not as healthy as the other options

Keep in mind that you will need to use some more water if you use a dry sweatener

Ingredients: 

3 cups of peanut butter

1 ½ cups of protein powder

½ cup of real maple syrup 

1 cup chocolate chips

¼ cup peanut butter

1-3 tbsp of water

Instructions: 

Mix the protein powder, 3 cups of peanut butter, and maple syrup together until combined

It may be very dry and crumbly

Slowly add water until the dough can be pressed together

Do not add too much!

Press the dough into a parchment paper lined baking sheet or any other container

Melt the chocolate and ½ cup peanut butter and spread it evenly on top of the dough

Chill in the refrigerator for about 3 or 4 hours

Cut bars and enjoy!