S’Mores Bars

As found in the Precision Nutrition Gourmet Nutrition cookbook.

This protein bar recipe is fantastic. If you know that you are going to be on the run, and need something to tide you over until your next meal, these puppies are your answer. The bars are super easy to make and travel well in their own little foil wrapper. Personally, we try to stay away from store bought protein bars, with their empty glycerine carbs and corn syrup, but in the past we have had a hard time finding homemade recipes that were tasty and not a pile of mush. You can imagine how excited we were when we gave this recipe a try and it tasted as good as it sounds. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 8 scoops chocolate whey protein powder
• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder, unsweetened
• 1/3 cup malt-sweetened chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup granulated Splenda (or a few packets) **
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• cooking spray

** We substitute stevia here.

Directions

1. In a dry blender, process 1 cup of the rolled oats into flour. Add the oat flour to the remaining cup of rolled oats in a large bowl, and mix with the remaining dry ingredients.
2. After the dry ingredients are thoroughly mixed together, add 1/2 cup of the applesauce and stir. If mixture is too dry, add more applesauce 1 tbsp at a time. It will seem like there is not enough applesauce at first, but keep stirring, and it will mix. Try to use as little applesauce as possible, because it’s easy to make the mixture too saucy.
3. Cut 8 squares of aluminum foil, about 6×10 inches each. Lightly coat the interior with a olive oil cooking spray.
4. Spoon out an equal portion of the mixture onto each foil square, and roll them into a bar shape. I fold them like tamales, folding the ends over as well.
5. Bake the bars in the foil in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F for 15-18 minutes. Be sure not to overcook. It is far better to undercook these than overcook them. The difference between moist, rich bars, and dry, tasteless ones can be the result of only 2 additional minutes in the oven.

Nutritional Info

8 servings = per serving Calories: 275 Fat: 6 g Carbs: 30 g Protein: 27 g For more information on the Precision Nutrition system and other great recipes like this, click here.