P90X Protein Bar Recipe

Update: I added a second recipe. There are now Chocolate Chip Bars and Oatmeal Raisin Bars. My husband and I both agree, better to underbake these than overbake. We much prefer gooey to dried out.  Dried out/overbaked bars are pretty much inedible, and the line between "gooey" and "brick" is a fine one.

Update 2: We got a dehydrator and now usually dehydrate these on the "fruit leather" sheets in the dehydrator. We like the texture better (since we don't like the cooked edges in the baked version). Either way--oven or dehydrator--works!

Frequently it's really easy to make homemade version of pre-packaged foods. This goes for P90X protein bars. We looked up the nutrition facts of their bars, and then made our own version. Here's how:

First, we pulled up the label on a P90X bar. The stats are like this:

Calories: 260-270

Fat: ~7 g

Carbohydrates: ~32 g

Protein: ~20 g

Then I made a chart showing the stats for each of the ingredients I planned to use. Amounts of protein, fat, carb, and protein are per cup of ingredient. 

		Calories	Fat	Carb	Protein
Peanut butter	PER CUP	1600	120	56	72
Honey	PER CUP	1024		272
Oats	PER CUP	307	5	56	11
Cereal	PER CUP	172.9	3.325	34.58	2.66
Protein	PER CUP (80g)	322.4	5.2	7.8	65
Chocolate Chips	PER CUP	1280	64	160	16

Then I made another chart to alter the amount of each ingredient to change the ratios to match the P90X nutrition stats. 

Here's what we got: (This does not include addition of water!)

	RECIPE!	Calories	Fat	Carb	Protein
Peanut butter	0.8 cup	1280	96	44.8	57.6
Honey	0.75 cup	768	0	204	0
Oats	1.75 cup	537.25	8.75	98	19.25
Cereal	1.75 cup	302.575	5.81875	60.515	4.655
Protein	4 cups	1289.6	20.8	31.2	260
Chocolate Chips	0.5 cup	640	32	80	8
	TOTAL	4817.425	163.36875	518.515	349.505
	TOTAL PER BAR (20 BARS)	268	9	29	19

So, the ending recipe is....

P90X Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars!

0.8 cup peanut butter (all natural, ours was creamy Costco brand)

0.75 cup honey

1.75 cup rolled oats

1.75 cup honey bunches of oats cereal

4 cups protein powder (ours is whey unflavored--Nutra Bio brand)

0.5 cup chocolate chips (ours were trader joe's)

~1.5 cups water (maybe more maybe less)

Mix the dry ingredients together. Put honey and peanut butter in a bowl and microwave ~30 seconds to soften/liquify. Add the peanut butter/honey and dry ingredients together, and add water until the mixture is very thick and pour-able. Scrape into a lightly greased 9x13" pan and bake for ~15-20 minutes at 350 (the edges should be slightly brown but the center will still be gooey). Cool on counter until near room temp, then put into fridge until hardened up. Cut into 20 bars. 

Update: I find that if you like really gooey bars, then it is great to use the 9x13" pan. If you prefer less gooey bars, use two 8 or 9" square pans. (You'll get a more even bake in the smaller pans, unlike the large pan, where the edges will overbake and the center will stay gooey.)

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By the way, P90X is going really well. It's tiring, but we can definitely see the difference. For one, I am VERY glad to have changed to a higher protein lower carb diet. I have the most sensitive stomach EVER (generally plagued by problems) and have found that many fewer carbs have helped a lot!). We have finished three weeks, so are just starting our recovery week (well, that is, after our 109 mi bike ride tomorrow..then we will "recover").


UPDATE!! 

I created another recipe! This one is oatmeal-raisin. 

Here's the chart:

RAISIN RECIPE!
	RECIPE!	Calories	Fat	Carb	Protein
Peanut butter	1 cup	1600	128	48	56
Honey	0.75 cup	768	0	204	0
Oats	2 cup	614	10	112	22
Cereal - Grape Nuts	1 cup	400	2	96	12
Protein	4.5 cups	1451	23	35	293
Raisins	0.75 cup	390	0	93	3
	TOTAL	5223	163	588	386
	TOTAL PER BAR (20 BARS)	261	8	29	19

And here's the user-friendly recipe!

P90X Oatmeal Raisin Protein Bars! 
1 cup peanut butter
0.75 cup honey
2 cups oats
1 cup grape nuts
4.5 cups protein powder (ours is whey unflavored)
0.75 cup raisins
1 tsp cinnamon (or your preferred spices. I might use more than a tsp)
~0.5-1 cup water

See instructions for the chocolate chip recipe above.

WHEY PROTEIN POWDER INFO!
This is the one we buy.  Yes, we are serious about protein powder--that's a 5 gallon bucket in the pictures below. A little ridiculous. **If you order from Nutra Bio, be sure to check their "$6.95 Shipping" link at the top of the page--otherwise the shipping will be super expensive. When I looked the coupon code was SAVE4.