These healthy and delicious vegan peanut butter and jelly energy bars are perfect for snacking, vegan, gluten free, and made with natural sweetness!Â
If you’ve got an extra 10 minute this gorgeous Sunday, I’ve got a plan for you!
Grab your food processor and whip up a batch of these Vegan PB & J Energy Bars. They are perfect for a breakfast on-the-go or a healthy snack to have during the week. Plus, they are way cheaper than store-bought energy bars which can easily run you $3 each.
My favourite thing about homemade energy bars, balls, or bites, is that they are unbelievably easy to make and even easier to take to work during the week for an afternoon pick-me-up, give to the kiddies for an after-school snack, or to enjoy for naturally energizing pre-workout option!
Using only 5 whole-food ingredients these bars truly replicate the mouthwatering flavours of a classic peanut butter and jam sandwich… just a single bite brings back memories of being a kid as PB & J was one of my absolute favourites.
Unfortunately the PB & J combo I enjoyed so much as a kid, was not always the healthiest one. From what I remember, those sandwiches were made with hydrogenated sweetened peanut butter and sugar-laden jam on top of two slices of glistening white “roll-it-into-a-ball” (wonder)bread.
Whole-foods present = zilch, nada, nil, zero.. you get the point.
So, to put a good NITK twist on things, I made sure that these energy bars pack a nutritional punch but still taste like a deliciousPB & J sandwich.
These bars are high in fibre at 7g per bar, provide a little dose protein, natural sweetness from the dates for quick releasing energy, and a nice boost of antioxidants! The big bonus… they only take 10 minutes to make, and a 30-minute wait as they sit in the freezer to set.
Are you a PB & J fan? How do you enjoy this delicious flavour combination in a healthier way? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!
- 1¾ cup pitted dates (soaked in warm water for 15 minutes, then drained)
- ½ cup unsweetened dried cranberries (or naturally sweetened if you can't find unsweetened)
- ¼ cup natural peanut butter
- ¼ cup whole blanched peanuts
- ½ cup gluten free quick oats
- Soak the dates in warm water for 15 minutes, and drain.
- Place dates, dried cranberries, peanuts, peanut butter, and oats in a food processor and blend until combined well.
- Scoop mixture into a square baking pan, and firmly press down to make an even layer.
- Place in the freezer for 30 minutes to set, then cut into 8 rectangle bars.
- Store in the freezer or fridge.
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Christal //Â Nutrition in the Kitch
Delicious. Great lunch box snack. Heck of a work out for my food processor tho. Had to do it in a couple of batches as it kept stalling.
Lol! Yeah, some food processors struggle with these – I’ve had to do in batches before as well!
My poor weak food processor had trouble with this too, haha.
For anyone who is worried about theirs – I just put each ingredient in separately to chop them up individually, and then mixed them together (you can either do this in the food processor or by hand). So good!!
Thanks for the tip Sydney!! 🙂
do you think it’s okay to keep these on the room temperature about 10 days? because i want to bring these for travel.
They may be a little soft/mushy if they get too warm, but that can be corrected by tossing them in the fridge!
Do you think prunes would work instead of dates? I’ve got a bunch of prunes lying around that need to be used up!
I don’t see why not! 🙂
Made these last night for my kids to use as a grab-n-go breakfast on school mornings. Not gonna lie – I snuck one. They are GOOD (surprisingly filling, too)! Love that they’re sweetened naturally with the dates. The only problem I had with them is, after freezing, I wanted to cut them into small bars and put them into ziplock baggies and they seemed to crumble rather than hold in bar. I think next time I make them I may slightly reduce the amount of oats or add a Tbsp-ish of water.
Hey Lori! Yes, adding a tablespoon of water really helps to make them stickier! 🙂
Do you think using rolled oats would work?
Yep! 🙂
I’ve been trying lots of raw desserts recently, and I’ve noticed a theme with the dates. They are crazy sticky, so I’m guessing they act as a binder of sorts. Question though. You recipes are the first I’ve come across so far that soak the dates first. What is the purpose of that? Also, the other similar recipes I’ve thus tried specifically suggest mehjool dates. I’m curious if you are familiar with these versus other dates I might find as the store.
Thanks for any advice.
Hey Bethany! The reason I suggest to soak the dates is that when soaked they soften and are easier to work with – they blend/process better and aren’t as sticky! Medjool dates are the best for these types of recipes because they are larger, softer, and moister than other date varieties!
Christal, if I use mehjool dates in this recipes, do I still need to soak them?
If they are soft to begin with then you don’t need to soak! It’s only when the dates are harder to the touch!
Great, thanks for the clarification! I’ve tried a few of your other recipes that called for medjool dates, and they never needed soaking. So glad to hear i don’t need to soak for this recipe (mine are usually soft).