Vegan Pumpkin Protein Bars

Ever since making Mama Pea’s Gingerbread “Cliff” Bars a few weeks ago, I have been hooked on making my own protein bars. Each Sunday for the past three weeks I’ve made a batch of some sort of protein bar and devoured them throughout the week. It’s been fun.

This week I was inspired by Jamie Eason’s LiveFit recipe for Pumpkin Protein Bars and decided to make pumpkin protein bars that are vegan. I used both recipes as a guide and came up for a finished product that makes me a happy camper so I thought I would share.

They look like brownies, taste like pumpkin spice and are much more nutritious!

I skipped the baby food that Jamie’s recipe calls for, added in some extra protein powder and used molasses as the sweetener. Molasses is great because it’s natural and has a ton of vitamins and minerals including a significant amount of iron.

Overall, I think they turned out to be really good – soft and moist like an undercooked brownie. They have a nice sweetness from the stevia and molasses making them the perfect mid-afternoon snack or after-dinner treat. Although, I’ve been eating them at any time of the day – including breakfast.

Vegan Pumpkin Spice Protein Bars

Adapted from Mama Pea’s Gingerbread “Cliff” Bars and Jamie Eason’s Pumpkin Protein Bars / Makes 24 squares

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup oat flour
• 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
• 1 cup vanilla protein powder (I use brown rice protein powder, but others would work)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 cup blackstrap molasses
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or other non-dairy milk)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 10 drops of liquid stevia

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Spray a 9 X 13 glass Pyrex dish with non-stick spray.
3. Stir together the dry ingredients including flour, oats, protein powder, baking powder, baking soda and pumpkin pie spice.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the wet ingredients including the molasses, pumpkin, applesauce, almond milk, vanilla and stevia.
5. Gently stir the dry mixture into the wet ingredients and stir until well combined. The batter tends to be kind of thick by the end so stir hard. (If it’s too thick, you can add a splash more of the almond milk, but I didn’t need to.)
6. Spread batter evenly into the 9 X 13 dish and bake for about 20 minutes.

Let me know what you think if you try these bars! And , if you’re not in the mood for pumpkin this time of year, you can also try my Banana Carob Protein Bars or these Cherry Protein Pop’ems. <– Both recipes are tasty!

Oh and if you happen to have a smartphone and love to find new apps, check out my “Show Me Yours” feature over at appSmitten where I share my three favorite apps.

appSmitten is a website/service that helps people find cool and useful apps for their smart phone. I just got an iphone last summer and I always feel like the late bloomer in the app department because all my friends know about cool apps before I do. I recently subscribed to appSmitten (after they contacted me about sharing my favs) and now I just check my email and find out about cool apps that peek my interest – for free. If you’re an app geek like me, you’ll probably like appSmitten too.

Question of the day – What’s your favorite app at the moment?

Tagged as: appSmitten, Vegan Pumpkin Protein Bars