Homemade Protein Bars – Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

These aren’t your classically chalky protein bars, no these are the best homemade protein bars ever!  Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Protein Bars are a Healthy snack recipe!

Your goal this year was to take better care of yourself and you can still totally do it. Eating healthy snacks throughout the day have really helped Carrian and I to make better choices at mealtime, keep our metabolism going and feed our muscles the protein they need to be healthy and strong. These homemade chocolate chip cookie dough protein bars are the perfect example of how eating healthy doesn’t have to be torture.

We all know that protein bars can be some of the worst tasting healthy snacks out there. You’re trying so hard to lose weight, get in shape or just make better choices for your body and then snacks like that kind of ruin you. Our homemade chocolate chip cookie dough protein bars are so not that way. They literally taste like cookie dough, but with a nice big dose of protein in them.

What Do You Need to Make Protein Bars at Home?

Here is your grocery shopping list:

• Almond or Cashew Butter – you can make your own at home (see section below) or go with store bought, this acts as the binding agent for the bars
• Honey – adds natural sweetness, you could also use maple syrup or a combination of both
• Oat Flour – you can make your own by grinding up your oats in a food processor
• Cake Flour – more delicate than all purpose flour
• Vanilla Protein Powder – Optimum Nutrition is our preferred brand for this recipe
• Salt – enhances all the flavors
• Vanilla – adds flavor
• Butter Extract – purely for taste, so feel free to omit if you want
• Skim Milk – helps bind everything together, you could also use almond, oat, coconut milk if you want dairy free
• Mini Chocolate Chips – we prefer the mini chocolate chips and be sure to save some to sprinkle on top

The measurements for each ingredient can be found in the recipe card at the end of this post.

Can Protein Bars Make you Fat?

Now let’s get one thing out of the way, can protein bars make you fat? Actually, many things can make you fat if you’re eating way too much of it. Protein bars still have sugar, calories, and fat. Just because there’s protein in there doesn’t mean you can eat a few of them a day. Carrian likes to maintain muscle so one serving would be good for her, while I’m building muscle so I take in more protein in a day.

Will Protein Bars Help you Lose Weight?

Protein bars can help you lose weight by providing the essential protein you need for muscle growth or maintenance and by helping you to stay fuller longer, thus not needing extra helpings at meal time. The digestive process also uses your metabolism so eating more often with healthy snacks is a great idea.

How to Make Homemade Protein Bars with Protein Powder

In order to make protein bars with protein powder you need a good binding agent, which in this case would be almond butter or cashew butter. We use whatever we have on hand. The powder should be a good quality powder more than ever before because you’re about to add extra calories with the flours, sugars etc so we need a protein powder that’s lower in sugar and higher in protein otherwise you miss the purpose of this healthy snack recipe for homemade chocolate chip cookie dough protein bars.

Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Protein Bars

To make homemade chocolate chip cookie dough protein bars, consider making your own almond or cashew butter. Heat the almond butter and honey or maple syrup (sometimes we use a combination)

To Make Homemade Almond Butter

It’s as simple as throwing whole nuts into a blender and mixing until smooth. That’s literally it. We much prefer the flavor and texture of homemade versus it’s super oily cousin at the store.

Remember, the nuts will heat up which is not something we want, not yet at least so make sure you start and end with pulsing in the blender, checking every now and again to see how warm it is getting.

How to Store Protein Bars

Store these bars in an airtight container at room temperature. They are also great in the refrigerator if you prefer a chilled protein bar. They also freeze really well, so you could make a double or triple batch and freeze a bunch of them. They make a great after school snack for the kiddos!

If you’re looking for an easy and healthy snack that will help you hit your protein for the day (11 grams in just one bar!), then these homemade protein bars are a great option! They taste just like chocolate chip cookie dough!

More Healthy Snacks to Try:

• Homemade Granola
• S’mores Energy Bites
• Aussie Bites
• Peanut Butter Greek Yogurt Dip
• Chocolate Swirl Berry Yogurt Bark
• Oatmeal Cookie Energy Bites

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