You know I love my protein bars! Its my go-to snack after the gym. There is rarely a day that I don’t eat one of the protein bars I have stashed in my freezer. Since I love variety, I like to come up with new flavor combinations. If you’ve been following the site for a while, you’ll know I have a pretty big obsession with coconut. In pretty much all shapes and forms. I always have coconut chips on hand, so I figured it was time to come up with a No-Bake Coconut & Chocolate Chip Protein Bar.
The coconut chips that I have are very roasted. As you can see, they are a golden color. The brand I used was called Rockwell (found in Canada). I’m also a fan of the Trader Joe’s Roasted Coconut Chips (found in the US), only those are white in color. Any coconut chip will do in this recipe, so use whatever you can find. I will mention that large flaked coconut and roasted coconut chips are not the same. Flaked coconut is raw, and doesn’t have as deep of a flavor as the roasted coconut chips. The roasting really brings out that intense coconut flavor. Just writing about it is making me drool right now!
I put this batch in a loaf pan which is what I do for a single batches. Quite frequently, I do double batches, and put them in an 8×8 pan or you could use a 9×13 but they’ll just be quite thin. Not that the thickness matters anyway as they are no-bake.
If you haven’t gotten on board with making your own protein bars yet, its a great and cost effective way to make filling snacks for the week. You can buy whey protein in bulk to keep the costs down, and the other ingredients are very inexpensive (oats, peanut butter, etc). Once to start to experiment, you can try whatever flavor combo’s you like! Some of my other favorite homemade bars similar to these are my No-Bake “Better Than Store Bought” Protein Bars, No-Bake Snickers Protein Bars, No-Bake Peanut & Chocolate Protein Bars and my other favorite coconut bar – No-Bake Chewy Coconut Chocolate Protein Bars.
- 1½ cups whey protein, vanilla (I used MRM)
- 1½ cups quick oats
- ¼ cup natural peanut butter (or sub for additional coconut butter for nut-free)
- ¼ cup coconut butter
- 3 Tbsp honey (I used Nature's Hollow sugar-free honey)
- 3 Tbsp chocolate chips (I used Krisda stevia chocolate chips or Lily's )
- 3 Tbsp roasted coconut chips (I used Rockwell's)
- 20 drops vanilla stevia (optional) (I use NuNaturals )
- ½ cup unsweetened almond milk (or milk of choice)
- In a large bowl, add the protein powder and oats.
- Mix in the peanut butter, coconut butter and honey an mix until somewhat combined (hands work best).
- Add in chocolate chips, coconut chips, stevia (if using), and almond milk.
- Mix together with your hands until its all combined - mixture will be sticky.
- Place mixture in a loaf pan and press into the pan with a piece of plastic wrap over-top so it doesn't stick to your hands.
- Place bars in the fridge for 30 minutes plus to cool and set.
- Remove from fridge, cut into 6 bars, wrap each individually in a plastic baggie and place in the freezer for grab-n-go.
If you want lower calorie bars, cut into 12 bars instead of 6, and cut the nutritional info in half.