Protein bars

...I'll be honest, on the whole 'protein ' bars annoy me. I'll give you an example.
I read this blog post & thought..ok I'll check it out, so off I went to the site selling them & here's what we find:

Average/Serving %
Calories 190
Calories from fat 45
Total Fat 5g 8%
Saturated Fat 3g 15%
Trans Fat 0g 0%
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 65mg 3%
Potassium 190mg 5%
Total Carbohydrate 26g 5%
Dietary Fiber 2g 8%
Sugar 15g
Protein 10g

Is this a 'protein' bar...how do you define that? Notice there are around 3 times the carbs in this bar than protein & more calories from fat than protein as well, so we have a carb bar, with some fat & protein added...don't we? I would describe it as a candy bar, wouldn't you? People should sort out their taste buds a bit, yes we are predisposed towards sweet foods, but the palate can be re-educated, just takes a decision from you. Chocolate coated sweeties are not training food, they're what will make you fat. If you want something sweet, eat some fruit....I'm still waiting for a decent vegan protein bar to come out that actually has mainly protein & little carbs in it...maybe one day?
Please don't kid yourself you are eating 'training' food when you eat stuff like this, if you want a candy bar, that's fair enough, just go & buy one, but don't try to lie to yourself & say products like this are somehow helping towards your training goals.

Anything under 25-30g protein in a bar and it is basically a "Candy-Bar" to me. I stick only to Nitro-Tech, Met-RX or EAS bars but I keep them to a minimum....nothing beats WHOLE, REAL foods for the nutrition content and thermogenic effect.

Hi all,
I found a recipe for home-made protein bars at Mike Mahler's website. It was basically 4 scoops of rice protein powder, 1 tbsp of almond butter, cinammon, and 1/2 cup of almond milk. You mix them well and divide the resulting mass in small balls (it's easier to shape into bars after that). I also added some chopped dates for sweetness and soy-milk for extra protein. It took about me about 45 min to prepare (including 15 min. of baking at 425 degrees) and yielded about 5 good size protein bars. They tasted OK.

That bar actually sounds do-able even by a rubbish cook like me! You could also vary the choice of protein powders, the nut butters etc to vary the taste a bit as well, thanks for that.

It's doable all right (believe me, I'm not much of a cook myself) . On the subject of easy recipes, here is very tasty and super-easy to prepare hummus recipe. Be warned it has a Mexican touch so it's a bit hot & spicy :

Spicy Hummus w/lime
- 3 cloves of garlic (minced)
- 2 cups of garbanzo (chickpeas)
- 1/2 cup of lemongrass water
- 1.5 tsp of salt
- 1/2 tsp of ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes
- 2 tbsp of almond butter
- 1/2 cup of lime juice

Mix garlic, chickpeas, lemongrass water, almond butter, and lemongrass water in a blender or food processor (my point of reference is when I can make an indentation on the mix with the back of a spoon). Then add the spices and mix again. I like to eat it on corn tortillas (another Mexican touch) and garnish with pomegranate.

I love this dish. It's well worth the 45 min it takes to prepare (probably less if you have a good food processor, mine is a bit on the lower end)