Peanut Butter & Jelly Protein Bars

Remember the amazingly delicious coconut and strawberry protein bars I made a while back? Remember that I swore I’d someday make peanut butter & jelly flavored protein bars? Well last night I DID! (Sorta. More on this later.)

I thought a bit about how it would work. I wanted to skip the coconut, so I knew I’d need something sticky to hold it all together, and I knew I wanted that jelly flavor, so I decided that dried cherries would do the trick! Here’s what I came up with:

PB&J Protein Bars

• 60 grams PB2 Powdered Peanut Butter
• 4 oz. cocktail peanuts
• 1/2 cup dried cherries
• 60 grams whey protein powder (I used Isopure Zero Carb Vanilla)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla (I used pure vanilla extract)
• 60 millilitres (2 oz.) unsweetened coconut or almond milk (I used coconut almond milk)

Using a food processor, blend the peanuts, cherries, craisins, PB2 and protein powder until a coarse meal. Add vanilla and almond milk and blend into a paste. Press into a tin lined with parchment and refrigerate until firm. Refrigerate until totally cool and cut into 8 pieces.

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Easy peasy! But, while they tasted nicely of peanut butter (albeit a bit salty tasting, use unsalted peanuts next time) the jelly flavor was a bit lost, so I may add some more dried fruit in the form of Craisins next time. My recipe actually had Craisins in the ingredients list, but I skipped them by accident. And they were missed! These are still yummy though, and far more savory than sweet.

Each bar is 168 calories, 9 grams of fat, 12 grams carbs, and 13 grams protein! Not bad, right?! Yum!