Easy No-Bake Sunflower Butter and Apple Protein Bars

We have officially ended our school year!!  We had a great first year of total homeschooling and, believe it or not, I’m already getting excited about our curriculum choices for next year!  I think as a homeschooling mom my brain is in school mode year round!  The princesses will be participating in our library’s Summer Reading program, we’ll probably throw in a little science on our beach trips and work on some math skills while cooking in the kitchen!  Oh the fun of Summer!

One thing I used to look forward to during the Summer months was getting to sleep in a few minutes longer, but now that I’ve taken up running I discovered that sleeping in really isn’t an option.  Yesterday I got about a 20 minute late start and boy did I feel it!  The sun was a blazin’ and the critters were out in full force.  Not only did I return home a hot sweaty mess, but I ran through my fair share of sticky spider webs and probably inhaled way too many bugs than I care to know about!  I will gladly go back to early morning runs!

Speaking of runs, I signed the hubs and I up for our 2nd 5K next month!  We’ll be running the Coronado Independence Day Run on July 4th.  I’m not really doing any specific training for this one, just keeping up with my running during the week and hoping to beat my time from the last run!   I’ll need some good fuel to keep up my pace, so I thought I would work on some “no-bake” recipes to beat the heat (the hubs doesn’t appreciate me using the oven to heat the house during 90 degree weather!).

No Bake Sunflower Butter and Apple Protein Bars

(inspired by Meals and Moves)

Yields 8 Bars

Ingredients:

2 cups gluten free rolled oats

6 scoops protein powder

4 Tbsp Sunflower Butter

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 Tbsp cinnamon

1/4 cup raisins

1/2 an apple, peeled and chopped

1/4 cup + 2Tbsp water

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients and mix well.  Transfer mixture into an 8x8 inch dish and refrigerate until mixture is set, about an hour.

These bars are pretty thick and dense, so if you want a “thinner” bar I would suggest a 9x9 inch pan.

 *Note: These didn’t set up as much as I would have hoped, so I stuck mine in the freezer for about 10 minutes and that did the job!

 This hearty bar was the perfect “refuel” food after my morning run!  Not only is it packed with protein (better than a mouth full of bugs!), but it left me feeling full until lunch.

I picked up some dates at Trader Joe’s this weekend so I could try my hand at some “Lara Bar” makeovers!  I’ll let you know how it goes!

Blessings,

J’lene