How to make Protein Bars, To who makes home made Bars

I just started my second job (now I work at BestBuy and UPS). So I was looking for something that can give me atleast 30-40 grams of protein and that can fit into my pocket for BestBuy. So I have been looking around for protein bars and none Satisfied me. They either had too much Sat. Fat or alot of Sugar Alcohols or Refined Sugar like High fructose corn syrup. So I guess the only way to enjoy my protein at work is to make some from home. And thats where all of you come in. Please give me Ideas and Details, along with directions and Ingredeints. I am looking for all kinds of flavors and tastes. Something around 200-300 calories, low to zero in sugar, moderate carbs, fiber, healthy fats, and atleast 30 grams of protein. Please post and thank you.

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3 cups oatmeal, 1/2 cup peanut butter, 1 cup skim milk, and 4 scoops of protien. Mix all ingredients into a bowl and spread out into a baking sheet and place in freezer overnight. Cut into eight squares in the morning each bar will contain 26 carbs, 24, protien, and 11 fat grams per serving.

Do a search... plus the bar recipe that is on here consists of oatmeal protein powder, and is a good snack but good luck keeping that in your pocket then trying to eat it... its going to a mess... better to have a shake... and oatmeal packets...

why would u have it in your pocket?

LOL! I don't think this protein bar was meant to be stored in your pocket. Any protein bar is intended to be a snack and this recipe doesn't seem too bad. Do a search and you should find several recipes if not on this site I know I've seen more recipes on others.

hey there... this is one of three recipes i saw on tv on a show called "Good Eats" on the Food Network. this is the one i liked most and i thought it would be suitable to make. i havent done it yet but maybe you can tell me how it goes. if you changed some of the ingredients around, i dont think it would make too much of a difference in the outcome. instead of soy, i would use a whey/casein blend. you can opt not to use the dried fruit, but i would for flavor, fiber and antioxidants. you could use any oil instead of canola, olive might be too overpowering, grapeseed or sunflower oil would be great if you ask me. i would definetly use splenda instead of sugar. i think you can use milk instead of the silken tofu if you want, but i wouldnt change that part because it could change the texture, but if your crazy about the numbers experiment all you like with it.

in the tv show where he demonstrates this recipe, he actually has the nutrition facts on it, but sadly its not on the website [http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_31336,00.html]. however, on the website url i just pasted, it writes the day and time of the next airing of that episode. so if you have food network, take a look! from what i remember the numbers were really great, it had more carbs than protein, thats for certain, but way less fat. [it was something like 22g carbs 4g fiber 5g fat 1g sat fat 10g protein, low sodium, low cholesterol. thats from memory and best-guessing]. you can control the number of carbs, and slightly increase the protein, your in business. if you want to increase the healthy fats, instead of the dried fruit, try walnuts for omega-3's and some slivered almonds. that sounds tasty. oh yea.... add cinnamon for flavor and blood sugar control

the cooking method is pretty simple. its called "the muffin method." mix the dry ingredients. then separately mix the wet ingredients. mix together to form a sludgy, gooey ball of ingredients [then stick the fruits and/or nuts] and put it in an oiled pan to bake. any supermarket should have all the ingredients in here. good luck!

I followed this recipe, used On's Chocolate Whey and Chunky Natty PB. They came out pretty good.

This didnt taste bad at all. It can be a little messy once your fingers warm the PB back up.

It took maybe 5 minutes to prepare and then you pop it into the freezer and forget about it.

Its a very good option for someone looking to make a bar without all that extra crap that the store bought bars have.

I have been using the "Good Eats" bars for quite a while. I made a few changes. I usse Whey instead of Soy (as already mentioned) I doubled the protein measure, added some mixed nuts and seeds ( peanuts, wallnuts, sunflower, etc) basically to taste but about a cup. I added flax seed about 1/2 cup. I reduced the sugar and increased the dried fruit a bit. They taste great - almost like peanut butter fruit cake. Only problem is it is difficult to determine the nutritional content now that I have made the changes. I estimate about 200 cal 10g prot, 30 carbs but hard to tell. I usually have them with a protein shake anyway before workout.

i got a question

i been lookin at the bar recipes on this and other sites

1) the bars that you freeze and do not cook, what is the consistancy? do they stay solid for a while out of the freezer and stay like a store bought bar? or do they fall apart uness frozen?

thanks guys

I made frozen bars and I usually keep them in the freezer and eat within 15 minutes of taking out.

I put them in the fridge once I cut them but they were flimsy. They weren't breaking apart, but they wouldn't stay straight when holding.

I find them more for a quick snack at home than to bring to work or something.

This may be a dumb question, but does baking the bars harm the protein at all? Can't remember where but I recall an article talking about excess rendering protein powder useless. If that isn't true then I'm going to tinker with a baked recipe with a tiny bit of wheat flour thrown in, the frozen kind are good, but I'd prefer a bar that I could keep in my desk at work for a few days. The frozen ones fall apart after they've reached room temperature.

i think you'd have to burn the batch before u render protein useless. however, heat can denature protein some, which isn't a bad thing really. denaturing is when the protein structure uncoils a bit, which i heard somewhere can help with digestion of the protein... but i dont know about the validity of that.

Thanks, so from what you say I figure baking them for 20-25 minutes shouldn't hurt too bad. I just want to be able to keep some in my desk for days when I didn't get a chance to make my meals and a need a quick snack. I'm going to play with a few recipes over the weekend and let you guys know how they turn out.

Added to the sticky in a new Recipe section

I was talking to a friend about making my own protien bars, and he asked me if it was posible to add any type of powdered suppliment into the ingredients.

I don't see why not, adding powders to them shouldn't pose a problem.

i am looking for bars with less carbs and more fat...its pretty difficult to make good tasting bars without flour / oats

Just swap out oats with flax seed meal.

I am going to have to try that if I can find it at a local store.