The BEST Protein Bars are healthy, no-bake, and contain nothing artificial! These are chewy, delicious, easy to customize, and are the perfect healthy snack.
Looking for more healthy snacks? Try my Energy Balls, Applesauce, Carrot Muffins, or learn how to make The Perfect Charcuterie Board.
Why I love this recipe:
No Bake – No heating up the house, and only takes 10 minutes to throw the ingredients together and put in the fridge.
Healthy – Nothing artificial here. These bars are filled with normal pantry ingredients and sweetened with honey.
Taste Delicious – I’ve had one to many unappetizing protein bars in my life, so I’m all about making them from scratch, with ingredients I recognize, and they taste wonderful!
Ingredients in Protein Bars:
- Rolled Oats – quick oats would also work.
- Protein Powder – Add your favorite whey or plant based protein powder including Chocolate, vanilla, or plain flavored.
- Peanut Butter – or substitute any nut butter or sunflower butter.
- Honey – Naturally sweetened and no added sugar. You could substitute agave.
- Ground Flax Seed
- Banana – mashed, for sweetness flavor and binding.
- Salt
- Vanilla Extract
- Mix-Ins – I like to customize my bars with chopped dates, dried fruit (blueberries, cranberries, or raisins), mini chocolate chips, or unsweetened coconut flakes.
How to make Protein Bars:
Combine Ingredients: Mix all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Press firmly into an 8×8 inch pan.
Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before cutting into bars.
Cut into bars and store in the fridge.
Freezing Instructions:
Layer bars in a freezer safe bag or container, with a piece of parchment paper between layers, and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator or on the counter before eating.
Recipe Variations:
- Mix-Ins: Customize these bars with your favorite mix-ins! Some ideas: chopped dates, dried fruit (blueberries, cranberries, or raisins), mini chocolate chips, unsweetened coconut flakes, crispy rice cereal, chopped nuts, or anything you like!
- Nut Butter: Swap out the peanut butter for almond butter, cashew butter, or sunflower butter.
- Protein Powder: Use your favorite kind. Chocolate, vanilla, or plain would all work great for this recipe!
- Vegan Protein Bars Recipe: Use your favorite vegan protein powder.
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Recipe
Protein Bars
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
- 3/4 cup peanut butter , or favorite nut butter or sunflower butter
- 1 banana , mashed
- 1/3 cup honey , agave or real maple syrup
- Pinch salt
- ½ cup ground flax seed
- 1 cup protein powder*
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup Mix in options: chopped dates, dried fruit (blueberries, cranberries, or raisins), mini chocolate chips, unsweetened coconut flakes, nuts
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients until well combined. Mixture should be fairly soft and not dry or crumbly. Add a splash of water or milk, or an extra drizzle of honey, if needed.
- Press very firmly into an 8×8 inch pan. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before cutting into bars.
- Store bars in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
Notes
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?
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These are so good!! I typically buy protein bars, but after trying this recipe I’ll be making my own from now on! Thank you!!
I have made these 3 times, very good but very sticky!
I used Natural sugar free peanut butter, first 2 times, last one regular peanut butter. Messy to eat, I will keep making them though!
Any tips on making it less sticky (post refrigeration)? I may have added too much water to help mix.
If it’s too stick you could sprinkle in some more oats.
Plan to make but Is there a substitute for banana? Member of household doesn’t like the texture or taste. Thanks
We haven’t tested a banana substitute BUT applesauce should work! Let us know if you give it a try!
Most of the recipes sound good to me. Hope to try a few soon. thank you
Very tasty and feel good about the “real” ingredients. I made a couple changes only to use what I had on hand. I used monk fruit as my sweetener and used chia seeds in place of the flax. Also used natural peanut butter and a few drops of water. Will make again. Maybe with dried apples and cinnamon.
This recipe SUCKS!! It was so dry and tasted like leaves from outside. Never Again .
These are not just the best protein bars I have eaten but one of the tastiest bars I have ever eater-thank you!
As I am on a nutrition plan, it would be very helpful to know if calories etc. are based on a serving or a 100g basis. Many thanks
De-licious!!! My husband needs to eat when taking a night time med. the pharmacist recommended protein bars but I wanted to be able to control the sugar. The are great!
I made this recipe, I really love how easy it was to make and the bars are delicious.
How can I get it to bind better? The taste is great but they fell apart instantly.
Add a little more liquid, nut butter, or honey.
Mine turned out a little to good !!!! Me and my husband could not stop eating them lol
These are delicious. I switched the peanut butter to peanut butter powder for health purposes and just reconstituted it with water. I also used sugar-free chocolate chips. They are so good… No store-bought protein bar compares!
Thank you so much for the recipe! I’m putting them in the fridge to harden now.
Do you know how long will they last at room temp vs the fridge?
I’ve made lots of protein bars and I think this is one of the better recipes. It was important for me to get at least 12g of protein without having high fat and this recipe does it. I threw in some pumpkin spice. I will make this again. Thanks Lauren
So delicious and easy!! I used exact recipe and added some raisins. I’m looking forward to trying the different variations. My non vegan, picky, sugar freak fiancé even loved these!!
After reviewing comments, I made the following changes.
I pulsed the oats in my food processor so they are not so big.
Used 1/4 cup peanut butter & 1/2 cup almond butter to make up 3/4 cup
Used equal parts honey and maple syrup to make up 1/3 cup
1/3 cup flax instead of 1/2 cup
1/2 cup protein powder instead of 1 cup
Added mini chocolate chips, almond slivers and chopped dried cranberries
The bars turned out very moist and not too overpowering from protein powder. This will be my go to protein bar recipe.
YUM!
hey just wondering is the nutrition based on 1 serving or all 12
Simple method,all ingredients at home.
I just made these for the second time. This time I made a double batch and froze half for postpartum to come home and know there’s a healthy snack for me.
I added 1/2 cup golden raisins, 3/4 cup pepitas, and 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips.
I only used 1/2 the suggested protein powder (used Orgain Organic Vanilla) and instead added more oats for the sake of texture.
I love this recipe. It’s so delicious everyone in my house eats them and enjoys them. I love how easy it is to make.
One whole cup of protein powder really messed this up. Tastes sooo bad and is incredibly dry. Maybe try 1/4 and I think this would be better
Sorry to hear you didn’t like it. You could try half protein powder and half unflavored collagen peptides!
Have been using this “Base” recipe for months now creating different variations of protein flavors and add-ins. It is really truly a great foundation for a low cost protein bar. I have found that they come together easier by pulsing/blending the whole oats into a powdery chopped mixture before mixing with the other ingredients.
My mix turned out incredibly dry even after tons of mixing. I had to throw in some applesauce to get it to be moldable as there was still a lot of powder that could not be absorbed. Maybe because my banana was too small? Not sure. But hopefully they will still taste good!
I had the opposite problem! Haha! Perhaps my bananas were too large! My mixture was very gooey, so I kept adding more dry ingredients. I finally had to stop because I didn’t want 100lb of bars. I put in the fridge for a couple of hours and they were sooo soft (like eat-with-a-spoon soft). I moved them to the freezer overnight, which firmed them up a bit. But they were still softer than I’d like. The flavor was good though. I think next time I’ll gradually add the banana and maybe use unprepared PB2, slowly adding water.
How does this work when not cooking the oats or soaking them overnight?
Very easy to make and a good source of
Protein
Making this as a care package for my cousin! First time making protein bars and they are so good! Will definitely be making them again!
This looks like a great recipe, and I love how you can customize it! One question: I have an allergy to bananas. What do you think might make a good substitute? I was thinking maybe dates?
Have you tried this with a substitute yet? My husband cannot stand bananas, and I was wondering what worked for you. I found this site https://americasrestaurant.com/banana-substitutes/
I’m going to try it with applesauce
Very tasty. Mine didn’t bar up very well, but this is perhaps because I omitted the honey/agave. I might try them again and roll into small balls rolled in coconut instead of forming a bar. Excellent as a topping for plain, non fat Greek yogurt such as Fage.
So yummy. Like this recipe. 😊
Love these! It seems we always have a batch on hand. The kids love them and they’re great for snacks, to take on the go, etc.
These are awesome and super easy to make! Bit hit with my whole family!
Lauren, I plan to make these using PB fit peanut butter powder mixed with water. It is 87% less fat than regular peanut butter. Do you ever use baking stevia or monk fruit?
Would love to hear how your bars come out! Lauren doesn’t normally use stevia or monk fruit but it should work great for you. Enjoy the bars!
How did they turn out with PB fit? What ratio of powder to water did you use?
This recipe looks delicious & so easy. I plan on trying it! It looks like I have all the ingredients except the protein powder!