I'm paranoid. The paranoia shifts depending on the day or month. Last year I read an article about a zero waste family and suddenly became obsessed with creating unnecessary landfill waste....so I stopped buying Ziplock baggies, switched to wax coated sandwich bags and bought a ton of tupperware to send my kids' lunches in. Recently, I read the following article on BPA-Free plastics:
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/03/tritan-certichem-eastman-bpa-free-plastic-safe
and became paranoid of plastics-how it was breaking down into our foods, our milk, our bodies. Much to John's dismay, this led me to throw out every plastic cup and tupperware (I recycled it, of course!)we owned. I bought Klean Kanteen's Stainless Steel cups for the kids to drink out of and $50 worth of stainless steel food compartments from steeltainer.com and lunchbots.com.
This week it's processed foods....so this morning the girls and I made these yummy No Bake protein granola bars. SO GOOD!
Home-Made No Bake Peanut Butter Protein Bars Recipe from the lean green bean website:
No Bake Protein Bars
An homemade, no-bake version of your favorite store-bought peanut butter protein bar, without all the crazy ingredients.
Ingredients
1 cup oat flour (i just ground up oats in my food processor until I have enough to fill 1 cup)
1 cup vanilla protein powder (2 heaping scoops)
1 cup Rice chex cereal
2 Tbsp chia seeds
½ cup peanut butter
¼ cup milk
3 Tbsp honey
1-2 Tbsp water
3 Tbsp chocolate chips, optional
Instructions
In a large bowl, combine the flour, protein powder, cereal and chia seeds.
In a small bowl, combine the peanut butter, milk and honey.
Microwave for 30 seconds, stir and microwave 15-30 sec more.
Add liquid mixture into dry ingredients and stir to combine.
Add 1-2 Tbsp water if necessary to make sure all dry ingredients are moistened. (Mixture will be crumbly).
Use parchment paper to press the mixture into an 8x8 pan (I use a 9x9 and just leave about an inch empty on one side).
Freeze for 20 minute.
Cut into bars (I cut mine into 8 bars).
Store in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer.
Melt chocolate and spread or drizzle over the bars.
Notes
You could use unflavored protein powder but you'd probably need to increase the amount of honey for sweetness and you might need to decrease the milk.
You could use other cereals like Rice Krispies instead of the Chex.
Use your favorite nut butter if you don't like peanut butter.
We pulsed a cup of dark chocolate chips to make them really chocolatey and added them to the dry mix. We also added a tablespoon of flaxseed meal and used NAVITAS Naturals' Superfod Smoothie Protein Mix with Hemp-Cacao-Maca. Key words: NO-BAKE
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