Chocolate-Maple-Peanut Butter Energy Bars

A great snack for energy that’s a mainstay of my active days.  Just be careful – one bar has 223 calories and 13% of your daily requirements of fat!

Ingredients

  • 4 cups quick-cook oats
  • 1 cup maple syrup
  • 1  cups peanut butter.
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 Tbsp cocoa powder
  1. Place oats in a large bowl.
  2. Put the maple syrup in a saucepan and add peanut butter.  Turn heat to low.
  3. Stirring regularly, melt the peanut butter into the maple syrup.  You may need to change the heat depending on your stove.
  4. When the peanut butter is melted, stir in cocoa powder and vanilla.
  5. Once mixed, immediately pour the maple-peanut butter mixture over the oats and mix thoroughly to coat.
  6. Place oats in a baking dish.  Place saran wrap over it and press down to spread it thoroughly so it fills pan evenly and is pressed down.
  7. Place in refrigerator for 2 hours.
  8. Cut into 16 bars.  Wrap and freeze them.

These need to be kept cool or they kind of fall apart.  Be sure to wrap them when transporting them around.

Taste wise these are delicious.  They’re also filling.  My way of using them is to pack one for a snack when I need a boost.  They’d also be great for really active days of exercise or hiking if properly wrapped.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.