Has Anyone Made a Good Homemade Protein Bar?

[BoilerBowHunter]

I only found one thread on this from 2015, and it had no replies. So starting a new one....

I've been trying to up my protein intake, and I have found that I need 1-2 "snacks" outside of normal meal times to try and hit the 1g/1 lb of body weight ratio I am shooting for. Shooting for something that is high in protein (obviously) and low in sugar and fat. Quest bars have been really good for that, but they are somewhat expensive for a daily thing. I found an online recipe that checks the boxes, but it's more of a sludge than an actual bar and, while edible, it's not great. I certainly wouldn't want to eat it every day.

So.... Has anyone been down this path and created anything that they actually enjoy consuming? "No bake" recipes would be great due to the simplicity, but I'm not hell bent on that.

 

[Slugz]

Backpacking Recipe: Holy Molé Breakfast Bars - The Hungry Hiker

Holy Molé Breakfast Bars just might be the perfect on-trail breakfast. They're easy to make, easy to pack, relatively healthy and holy molé are they tasty!

www.the-hungry-hiker.com

While researching for hunting / backpacking meals I came across the Hungry Hiker. She has a ton of great videos and a fair number of ideas I took. One was these bars. They take protein powder added well.

 

[Dos Perros]

Have you seen the EPIC bars? Those are awesome, if not pricey. They may also be too high in fat for you.

Bison Bacon Cranbery Bar - Protein Meat Bars - EPIC

A perfect on-the-go snack. Our Bison Bacon Cranberry snack bars are made with 100% grass-fed bison, uncured bacon, cranberries, and spices.

epicprovisions.com

 

[taskswap]

Does it have to be an all-in-one? I like the Rise Honey Stinger but it's expensive. Most of the other bars have whey or soy protein. I can't tolerate either one. I can do pea protein but there aren't that many products with it and they don't taste good.

So it's jerky for me, and that's such an easy, tasty way to get X grams that I just use that, and my "bar" is for other stuff: vitamins, carbs, etc. It was a lot easier to just double-fist two products than try to get one magic bar that was perfect in every way...

 

[BoilerBowHunter]

Affordability is definitely why I'm looking at homemade options. I fully agree there are some great options out there if you're willing to pay. Carnivore snacks are another one that I'd buy a ton of if I could "afford" it. I'm certainly not skimping on my health, but I'd like to find something I can make myself in order to keep costs more reasonable. I also prefer knowing what's going into what I'm eating if possible.

 

[sodaksooner]

Pemmican? It's on my list to try.

 

[BoilerBowHunter]

Backpacking Recipe: Holy Molé Breakfast Bars - The Hungry Hiker

Holy Molé Breakfast Bars just might be the perfect on-trail breakfast. They're easy to make, easy to pack, relatively healthy and holy molé are they tasty!

www.the-hungry-hiker.com

While researching for hunting / backpacking meals I came across the Hungry Hiker. She has a ton of great videos and a fair number of ideas I took. One was these bars. They take protein powder added well.

Thanks. Definitely looks like it would taste good! Looks like it would be quite high in fat content for what I'm looking for on a daily basis, but I could see how it may be good for something like a backpacking trip/hunt.

 

[rideold]

I made my own for a long time. Dates, nuts, dried fruit. Finally took the time to compare costs/calories/protein to Pro Meal Bars and found out it costs me the same to make my own as to buy them.

 

[fiskeri1]

I make my own using a food processor. It's amazing how easy it is to make something far, far better tasting than a store-bought Larabar with ingredients from Costco.

One pretty simple recipe:
Pistachios
chocolate protein power
dried cherries or blueberries
coconut oil
dried dates (or figs work fine also)

 

[NRA4LIFE]

I've been making my own protein bars for years. It's called jerky.

 

[TX_Diver]

I make my own using a food processor. It's amazing how easy it is to make something far, far better tasting than a store-bought Larabar with ingredients from Costco.

One pretty simple recipe:
Pistachios
chocolate protein power
dried cherries or blueberries
coconut oil
dried dates (or figs work fine also)

Do you bake them? Dehydrate them? Other?

New to this but most of the store bought ones have a ton of sugar or artificial sweeteners which I don't like the taste of.

This recipe seems simple enough.

 

[180ls1]

Why do shakes not work for you?

 

[northernalpine]

You guys are way healthier than I am…I cut 1/4 of flour from standard cookie recipes and add 2-3 servings of protein powder and dry peanut butter mix, lower the cooking temperature by about 50 degrees and slow bake them. Comes out to around 15 grams/cookie and doesn’t taste like cardboard so I actually eat them

 

[taskswap]

That's actually a pretty genius idea, just doctoring an already-good cookie mix to some degree? I may try that myself. I don't react well to most protein powders so for protein I usually reach for jerky. But I already love oatmeal-raisin cookies so adding peanut butter powder and maybe some walnuts would make a nice calorie-rich snack for almost no effort...

 

[BoilerBowHunter]

Why do shakes not work for you?

I do shakes as well. I do them for breakfast, but they have more than just protein powder in them. Im not into the “shake” that’s just protein powder and water. The bars are just easier as a mid day or mid morning supplement/snack.

 

[Brendan]

If you're talking at home, I do a scoop of protein 1-2x a day. I don't enjoy the taste either, but it's down the hatch fast enough that it doesn't matter. I have a dedicated nalgene for just this. Gold standard Chocolate Whey in the big 5# bags from Costco.

I buy family packs of chicken breasts and bake those with Salt/Pepper/Garlic mix. Throw one on one of those Flax / Wheat Pita's and it's a good quick high protein low carb snack. You can even toss one or two in a small lunch cooler with an ice pack and they keep cold all day.

For a "snack" - I do scoop of protein powder, mixed berries from Costco / Wherever (Blueberry, Raspberry, Strawberry, Blackberry blend depending on where you get it) with a little milk and or skim greek yogurt - blend into healthy high protein "ice cream". The trick is a good blender (Vitamix here) and don't overdo it on the milk / liquid - it'll literally come out like a thick soft serve if you do it right and healthy.

If you don't mind cooking quickly - you can fry 3-4 eggs in a little olive oil in a couple of minutes. Straight up down the hatch, or over brown rice or with a pita or whatever if you want some carbs. Omelet if you have a couple more minutes on your hands. (Eggs are one of the highest, if not the highest, quality protein sources too)

The problem with homemade bars is they don't have any preservatives so they don't keep, and you're doing the work anyways. So I try to stick with protein powder, or just whole, high-protein foods. On the go - out hunting or whatever, I just buy the usual commercial off-the-shelf bars or jerky of sorts.

 

[Poser]

Experimented with this before. Its very difficult to get the moisture content right and they end up too dry to be enjoyable or practical or wet and sloppy, prone to melting when exposed to any heat. In the end, I just decided it wasn't worth the effort. I currently have Rise bars and SANS bars on subscription.

 

[Hardly_Hangin]

I made some pemmican hockey pucks for my last elk hunt, which were around 500 calories of pure protein and fat each, based on my calculations. They were quite distasteful ala carte, but i would drop them in my next mile meal bag before i added my hot water to make them easier to eat

 

[Wheels]

These are good, you can add protein mix or nuts if you’d like.

 

[Austink47]

I make the food processor Lara bar style and add cricket flower for extra protein. Half figs and a little honey for the binder, half nuts and cricket flower for the protein, add any dried fruit for flavor, I like cranberries and apricots. Process the hell out of it and smash it between two cookie sheets, put it in the fridge for an hour and cut it to shape.