Strawberry Protein Bars

These healthy strawberry & oatmeal protein bars are made with only 5 ingredients. Convenient and quick, this delicious snack packs a lot of nutrients and is guaranteed to fill you up until lunch on a busy day. Vegan, Gluten-Free, Dairy-free and flourless these bars are friendly to most popular diet trends.

Protein bars are very popular in the house. They are compact and fill you up quickly so you can get back to whatever you were doing within 5 minutes.  They are also a great way to add more protein to your diet, which is always an issue for me as I train a lot, and must eat a ton of food.

One thing that always bugged me about most store-bought protein bars though is that they don’t provide many nutrients, if at all! Sure, they will fill you up and you will get your protein fix, but that’s pretty much it. And have you ever stopped to read the ingredients list?

Yeah. Well. When you can’t pronounce half of the words on a nutrition label, that is NOT a good sign!

Yes, there ARE nutritious protein bars on the market. They exist. But get ready to spend ridiculous amounts of cash, most of the times.

As I started to care about the quality of the food we eat, I stopped buying protein bars from the store and both my body and wallet said thank you!

Now, every Sunday I include snacks like these strawberry protein bars or these vegan vanilla fudge bars in my meal prep for the week. Simple, quick, healthy, done!

Strawberry Protein Bars

They say we should drink a glass of water on an empty stomach every morning to boost our metabolism. Do that instead of drowning yourself in coffee, you will thank yourself!

(Get that coffee later if you need to but please, don’t ever drink coffee on an empty stomach as it will force your stomach to produce acid like crazy!)

Another great way to stimulate your metabolism is by getting a dose of berries every morning. They are full of vitamins, antioxidants and fibers, which help greatly in that matter.

These bars are choke-full of berries, fibers and protein. All the good stuff your body needs in the morning after 8-10 long hours of fasting.

Grab one or two of these bars on your way out to work for a complete, healthy breakfast.

For this recipe I used fresh strawberries, but you can use the same amount of frozen strawberries, the result will be the same.

Fresh strawberries are tastier though, obviously. Even more so during summer when these fruits are in season. But if you are in a rush, frozen is perfectly fine.

How I prefer these protein bars?

Cold!

They taste so much better when left in the fridge overnight. They get softer, more tender and moist.

For this recipe I used vanilla flavored protein powder, but strawberry flavor could be good too, especially if you’re using frozen strawberries.

Which protein powder to use?

Use whatever you have on hand, it does not matter!

Although for this recipe to be vegan, you will have to use plant-based protein powder, obviously.

Important: use traditional oatmeal. Do NOT use instant oatmeal! Instant oatmeal isn’t healthy at all, might as well use all-purpose flour, it’s how bad this stuff is.

Yes, instant oatmeal is better than traditional for baking… Unless you know this simple trick: Process about half of the oatmeal in a mixer for 1-2 seconds. That way the texture will be pretty similar!

4 from 1 vote

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Strawberry Protein Bars

Course Snack Breakfast

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 25 minutes

Servings 8 Bars

Calories 212 kcal

Author One Clever Chef

Ingredients

• 2 cups rolled oats
• 2 1/2 cups strawberries mashed
• 1 cup vanilla protein powder*
• 3 tbsp maple syrup
• 4 tbsp almond butter
• 1/4 cup almond milk
• Optional: 2 Ounces dark chocolate 70% or more

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Line a baking pan** with parchment paper.
3. Process half of the rolled oats in a mixer or food processor for 1/2 seconds. Don't turn it into a fine flour, it has to keep some texture.
4. Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl, mix well.
5. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out moist with small crumbles.
6. Optional: Melt dark chocolate and drizzle it over the bars.

Recipe Notes

* For the vegan version, use plant-based protein powder. Only use 1 cup rolled oats if doing so.
** I used a 10-inch square baking pan.

Nutrition information is calculated for the bars only, without additional toppings.

Nutrition Facts

Strawberry Protein Bars

Amount Per Serving (1 g)

Calories 212 Calories from Fat 54

% Daily Value*

Fat 6g9%

Cholesterol 27mg9%

Sodium 37mg2%

Potassium 274mg8%

Carbohydrates 26g9%

Fiber 3g13%

Sugar 7g8%

Protein 13g26%

Vitamin C 26.5mg32%

Calcium 123mg12%

Iron 1.3mg7%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.