my protein bar recipe - advice/suggestion welcome

Bananaleaf

Hi

I recently bought a few different protein bars to try them and see what I liked with the view to copying the one I liked the most seeing as they are so expensive.

So this is what I ended up going with:

1/3 cup almonds
1/4 cup raw cacao nibs
1/4 cup chia seeds
1/4 cup desiccated coconut
2 tablespoons hemp protein
100g cherries
10 dates


I'm guessing with measures as the bars list ingredients but not quantities of course.

I like them a lot, but just wondering do they seem okay or is there something I could change? Protein content enough? I yielded 6 bars from above recipe

Thanks in advance for any suggestions

Bananaleaf

Mellor

Did you work out the nutritional content?
From first impression they appear to be quite higher in fats/carbs/sugars than protein.

Energy bars, fruit and nut bars etc seems more suitable.

spaceylou

Derval O'Rourke has a recipe for protein bars in her book if you wanted to give that a try.

Can't vouch for them specifically as they are still on my 'to make' list but pretty much every other recipe in the book is very very yummy and has received the thumbs up from both myself and OH.

http://dervalorourke.blogspot.ie/2014/08/peters-frozen-protein-bars.html

Bananaleaf

Mellor wrote: »

Did you work out the nutritional content?
From first impression they appear to be quite higher in fats/carbs/sugars than protein.

Energy bars, fruit and nut bars etc seems more suitable.

Thanks for the response. Not being smart here - just wondering but you say fruit and but bars - excuse my ignorance but apart from the coconut and cocoa nibs all I have in mine are fruit and nuts - am I using the wrong fruits or nuts?? Or not enough protein?

Thanks

Bananaleaf

Does anyone know of a fitness forum or website where I could get an answer on this? Thank you.

Mellor

Bananaleaf wrote: »

Thanks for the response. Not being smart here - just wondering but you say fruit and but bars - excuse my ignorance but apart from the coconut and cocoa nibs all I have in mine are fruit and nuts - am I using the wrong fruits or nuts?? Or not enough protein?

Thanks

I'm saying your car IS a fruit and nut bar, but not really a protein bar.

Bananaleaf

Oh right - I see now. Sorry I thought you meant that choosing a fruit and but bar would be more suitable.

Okay, I understand now, thank you.

Okay well I think I will keep making them as I like them and they are keeping me away from having a twix or something.

But I will try a different recipe for a protein bar then. With more protein.

Thanks

stick everything into this and tell us what it looks like

http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp

verywell

That is a great tool!

dastardly00

In order to settle my own curiosity.... because the OP doesn't look like to be posting up the info, here is the nutritional info for the homemade bars that I calculated using MyFitnessPal.

Per serving:
Calories: 264 kcal
Carbs: 26 g
Sugar: 11 g
Fibre: 12 g
Protein: 8 g
Fat: 15 g
Saturated fat: 7 g

As Mellor said previously, you're not getting a lot of protein compared to the carbs/sugar/fats in each serving.

Contrast this to Boardsies' favourite store-bought protein bar: Quest protein bars. The mint chocolate flavour for example will yield more protein and less calories/carbs/sugar/fat than the bars in the OP.

Per serving:
Calories: 190 kcal
Carbs: 21 g
Sugar: 1 g
Fibre: 15 g
Protein: 20 g
Fat: 9 g
Saturated fat: 4 g

If you want to make your own bars, these are the ones I make, as posted by muffinn way back in 2010.

Per serving:
Calories: 266 kcal
Carbs: 12.5 g
Sugar: 5.7 g
Fibre: 3.2 g
Protein: 25.7 g
Fat: 12 g
Saturated fat: 2.3 g

Bananaleaf

Wow that website is brilliant!

@dastardly .... Gimme a chance!

Here is the link for the barshttp://recipes.sparkpeople.com/cookbook_calculate_popup.asp?ingredientIDs=9087,12061,22238868,9070,65158615,67793647,&amounts=27380,29602,22267354,0,65185782,67820676,&qtys=10,0.25,4,100,3,2,&servings=8&food=User Entered Recipe

I didn't add the cocoa nibs because I couldn't figure out exactly which option referred to only to raw nibs.

They don't have a lot of protein in them, no I can see that now.

I really do like them however and would like to at least continue with them even as a healthier alternative to a chocolate bar. Would that be acceptable or do people think these are actually unhealthy?

I guess I could up the scoops of protein, up the amounts of almonds and take out some cherries? Will experiment with what that would look like on the web page first then report back

Don't know if it comes up on link but I got 8 bars from my recipe

Bananaleaf

dastardly00 wrote: »

In order to settle my own curiosity.... because the OP doesn't look like to be posting up the info, here is the nutritional info for the homemade bars that I calculated using MyFitnessPal.

Per serving:
Calories: 264 kcal
Carbs: 26 g
Sugar: 11 g
Fibre: 12 g
Protein: 8 g
Fat: 15 g
Saturated fat: 7 g

As Mellor said previously, you're not getting a lot of protein compared to the carbs/sugar/fats in each serving.

Contrast this to Boardsies' favourite store-bought protein bar: Quest protein bars. The mint chocolate flavour for example will yield more protein and less calories/carbs/sugar/fat than the bars in the OP.

Per serving:
Calories: 190 kcal
Carbs: 21 g
Sugar: 1 g
Fibre: 15 g
Protein: 20 g
Fat: 9 g
Saturated fat: 4 g

If you want to make your own bars, these are the ones I make, as posted by muffinn way back in 2010.

Per serving:
Calories: 266 kcal
Carbs: 12.5 g
Sugar: 5.7 g
Fibre: 3.2 g
Protein: 25.7 g
Fat: 12 g
Saturated fat: 2.3 g

Will give these a go!