No-Bake Oatmeal Protein Bars

Last night I stayed up until 12:30am researching recipes, nutrtition facts and new ideas to bring to FHAF . 

If you know me, you know that I NEVER stay up that late. I am a morning person and usually knock out around 10pm. Lately though, the only time that I've had to blog is like never! So I sacrificed a little sleep and tried to get inspired by reading a few articles and several recipes.

One recipe in particular caught my eye. It was for a No-Bake Oatmeal Protein Bar. It took me about 20 minutes to prepare and I let it sit for 30 minutes in the freezer. BAM!!! In less than an hour I had a yummy snack for the next few days.

Of course, I want to share it with you! Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 2 c. oats -- The real stuff, not that stuff that comes in a pouch!
• 1/2 c. natural peanut butter
• 4 scoops of protein -- I used a vanilla protein
• 1 tbsp. ground flaxseed
• 3/4 c. water
• (optional)1/4c. natural peanut butter to layer on protein bars

Directions:

First, if you don't have ground flaxseeds don't worry you can grind some flaxseeds up in your blender or if you are lucky like me you can grind some up in a Magic Bullet. Line a square baking pan with wax paper and set aside.

In a bowl combine the oats, flaxseed and protein powder. Add the peanut butter to mixture and blend slowly. Instead of using normal peanut butter I used this:

Once the mixture has become crumbly slowly add in the water and mix until you get a doughy consistency.

Spread the "dough" into the wax paper lined pan with a spatula.

As an option you can top the protein bars with peanut butter. Again, I used the Dark Chocolate Skippy Peanut Butter.

With or without peanut butter on top, place the protein bars into the freezer for 30 minutes. Remove from the freezer and cut into squares. This recipe yields 8 bars and the nutrition facts are as follows: