Healthy Peanut Butter Granola Bars

Nature Valley, eat your heart out. These healthy peanut butter granola bars are awesome! They’re sweet, crunchy, crumbly, and peanut buttery while also being more nutritious than many store-bought granola bars! These boast 5 grams of fiber and 13 grams of protein with only 10 grams of sugar.

Speaking of fiber, these call for both rolled oats and oat bran. Both of which are high in soluble fibers like beta-glucan. Beta-glucan is super good for you. One of its evidence-based benefits is lowering cholesterol. Beta-glucan binds to bile, which is 70% cholesterol, in your digestive system and shuttles it out of your body! This forces your body to make more bile, pulling cholesterol from your blood to do so. Neat, huh?

Now, onto the protein. Peanuts are a pretty good source of protein. But, to boost it even more this recipe calls for protein powder. I used Purely Inspired organic protein powder in my bars, but any protein powder should work. I recommend using vanilla protein powder, but you’re free to switch it up! Peanut butter flavored protein powder would make these extra peanut buttery. If it’s a flavor that pairs well with peanut butter it will probably be good in these bars. But, I’ve only tried this recipe with vanilla so it’s the only one I can recommend.

These healthy peanut butter granola bars are quick and easy to prepare. They take less than an hour from start to finish and are fun to make. To mix them all together you’ll want to get in there with your hands, making these a great treat to bake with kids!

Speaking of kids, these bars are perfect for lunchboxes! Well, they’re good for grown-up’s lunch boxes too, but you know what I mean. Humans of all ages will like them. Birds too, probably.

Print Recipe

Healthy Peanut Butter Granola Bars

Author: Mary Ellis Cooking Method: Baked

Difficulty: Easy Prep Time 20 mins Cook Time 30 mins Total Time 50 mins

Servings: 12

Ingredients

Servings

• 4 tbsp light brown sugar
• 2 egg whites
• 3 tbsp honey
• 6 tbsp no added sugar peanut butter
• ¹⁄₂ tsp salt
• 3 oz peanuts (I like a mix of chopped and whole)
• 5 tbsp yellow cornmeal
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 ¹⁄₃ cup oat bran
• 5 vanilla protein powder
• ¹⁄₄ tsp baking powder
• ¹⁄₄ tsp baking soda

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 325°F.
2. Place a sheet of parchment paper in a 9x13 inch pan and grease the parchment paper with vegetable oil.
   
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the egg white, brown sugar, and honey.
   
4. Next, add the peanut butter and salt to the bowl and whisk until combined.
   
5. Add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl.
   
6. Mix thoroughly using your hands until fully combined.
   
7. Dump the mixture onto the pan and press it in firmly, covering the pan. Press more than you think you need to, it'll help the granola bars stay together.
   
8. Gently cut the granola bars into 12 pieces.
   
9. Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.
   
10. Let cool before wrapping, enjoy!