Homemade protein bars

Protein bars can be extremely expensive and contain all sorts of unnecessary or unwanted ingredients for primal eaters. So I searched around for a recipe to make my own, I found a lot, but none that really appealed to me. So I took the basic elements of each and made my own recipe. I’ve now made two sets of protein bars, varying the ingredients to taste so I’ve put together this basic recipe which you can change, add and subtract from according to taste and availability of ingredients.

Melt together:

¾ cup of peanut butter (100% peanuts, no added oils)*

½ cup of coconut cream

2-3 Table spoons honey to taste

50-100g of dark chocolate (I used 72% cocoa)

Combine to the melted ingredients:

1 cup protein powder (I used chocolate flavoured whey protein)

1 – 1 ½ cups chopped almonds (I bought whole and chopped them in a food processor)

½ - 1 cup coconut meal to taste

Spread out in a dish and set in the fridge. Or you can roll them into small balls to set in the fridge.

The first time I made this I didn’t use enough dry ingredients so the bars remained quite soft, they still tasted good, but I wanted them to be more solid. So for the second batch (this recipe), I added more dry ingredients until it was rather hard to mix. When this batch set it stayed much more solid. You can adjust quantities and ingredients to taste, but I suggested adding as much dry ingredients as you can mix in.

*I know peanuts aren’t primal, but I’m a grad student and can’t afford almond butter. And these bars are still more primal than a muffin, or cookie from the supermarket. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.