These homemade allergy-friendly protein bars are so easy to make.
They are already wheat-free, egg-free, and nut-free.
Plus, they can be made dairy-free and peanut-free using your safe ingredients.
As many allergy families know, finding tasty milk-free protein bars in the store is next to impossible.
And when we do find a favorite brand, the bars run about two dollars a bar. Yikes!
That’s why we’ve made our own protein bars for years.
I was first inspired by a recipe at Money Saving Mom and adapted it to dairy-free.
We also added more raisins, sometimes omit the coconut, and lessen the protein powder so they don’t taste too sugar-free.
It’s a simple recipe that’s no-bake and super quick to put together.
You just need to let them set in the freezer for a couple hours after assembling them.
The perfect mid-afternoon snack that will fill your kiddos up until dinner.
Or enjoy them as a convenient dairy-free breakfast out the door.
Just know these bars need to stay frozen until eaten…so they aren’t something you can throw into a bookbag and eat hours later.
Eat them pretty near to frozen.
When we need something that travels well, we use store-bought protein bars. Take my money, HA!
The original recipe does call for protein powder, which I know many milk allergy families struggle with sometimes.
If you don’t have a safe, trusted, dairy-free protein powder, feel free to leave it out.
I left it out for years.
With toddlers, I just considered the peanut, nut, or seed butters as protein in these bars.
Once you try this recipe and love it, you may want to double the recipe if your family goes through them too fast like mine.
Fair warning!
ALLERGY-FRIENDLY PROTEIN BARS
WHEAT – This recipe is wheat-free, it calls for oats as the base. No flour needed. If you’re gluten-free, make sure the oats and all the ingredients are safe for you.
EGG – There’s also no egg in this recipe at all.
DAIRY – To make this recipe dairy-free, I use these allergy-friendly chocolate chips.
PEANUT – If you are peanut-free, substitute the peanut butter with your safe seed or nut butter.
COCONUT – You can opt for your safe dairy-free butter instead of coconut oil. And the shredded coconut can be omitted.
In addition, feel free to leave out the protein powder if you don’t have safe one.
See my adapted recipe below.
ALLERGY-FRIENDLY PROTEIN BARS RECIPE
Makes 8-12 bars.
INGREDIENTS
1 banana, mashed
1 and 1/2 cups dry quick oats
1/4 cup peanut, nut, or seed butter
1/4 cup melted coconut oil or dairy-free butter
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup dairy-free chocolate chips
OPTIONAL INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons ground flax (optional)
1/4 cup shredded coconut (optional)
2 scoops protein powder (optional)
DIRECTIONS
Line an 8×8 inch dish with foil. This makes lifting them out and cutting them so much easier.
In a large bowl, mash one banana with a fork.
Add in the rest of the ingredients except the chocolate chips.
1 and 1/2 cups dry quick oats
1/4 cup peanut, nut, or seed butter
1/4 cup melted coconut oil or dairy-free butter
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons ground flax (optional)
1/4 cup shredded coconut (optional)
2 scoops protein powder (optional)
Stir the ingredients together well.
Press the mixture evenly into the foiled-lined 8×8 inch pan.
Melt the 1/2 cup chocolate chips in the microwave for a minute, and then stir until smooth.
Evenly spread or drizzle the melted dairy-free chocolate over the bar mixture.
Freeze for 2 hours to let the bars set.
Once frozen, lift the bars out of the pan and let it sit for a few minutes. Then cut into 8-12 bars carefully with a chef knife. I like to saw through the chocolate so it doesn’t break into pieces. Then the chef knife should cut through the rest easily.
Store the bars in an airtight container in the freezer and pull them out as needed. Let them thaw a little before enjoying.
Hope you enjoy these protein bars as much as we do!
Here’s the Money Saving Mom recipe.
And here are more dairy-free breakfast recipes you may also like!
This was originally posted in August 2010.