Everyone loves a great bar. Here, we're talking about the kind that you can pack as a perfectly portable meal or snack (though we love bars with great alcoholic drinks too). Whether you need a breakfast you can eat while commuting, a post-workout snack to hold you until dinner, or a scrumptious yet healthy dessert, bars are fantastic, any time and for any mood you’re in.
But anymore the ingredients and sugar content in so many packaged ones aren’t worth their price—especially when homemade bars often wind up easier on the wallet. And they’re beyond easy to make: Can you stir and use a food processor? Then you can make your own bars.
Check out these recipes, whip up a batch, and you’ll have delicious, healthy snacks for the week. So many are more like formula than set-in-stone recipes, so don’t be afraid to swap in different nuts, seeds, fruit, etc. and create your own twists. You’ll come up with tasty flavors that you’ll never find in a wrapper.
Granola Bars
Photo: What's Gaby Cooking
1. Homemade Granola Bars
These bars are loaded with all kinds of good stuff, yet it all comes together in a delicious mix of flavors and textures. Almonds lend a bit of protein and crunch, dried cranberries and raisins bring the sweet and chewy, and chocolate chips make it a party. Toasting the oats may seem unnecessary, but it pumps up their flavor and makes then a little crispy.
2. Quinoa Granola Bars
Seeds aren’t just for the birds, and these not-too-sweet bars prove it. Hemp, chia, pumpkin, poppy, and flax make them crunchy and provide some omega-3s. Nut butter and quinoa add to the staying power, so you feel full until dinner.
3. Chewy Raspberry Apple Granola Bars
For anyone with nut allergies, this recipe is a total win. The oats pack in tons of fiber, raspberries boast a serious zing, and coconut oil adds a subtle tropical note. Ready in only three steps, the only labor you have to put in is stirring. Doesn’t get easier than that. (Now if only the bowl cleaned itself.)
4. Savory Oat Bars With Olives and Sundried Tomatoes
Granola isn’t only sweet, and odd as a Mediterranean-flavored bar may sound, it tastes amazing. And how could it not with sweet sun-dried tomatoes, slightly bitter Kalamata olives, earthy cumin, spicy chili, and zesty oregano? Salt tooths will devour these.
5. Cranberry Pistachio Granola Bars
The hardest part about this recipe is waiting two hours while they set in the fridge. (We recommend Games of Thrones to pass the time.) It’s worth being patient because these come up nice and chewy. Tart cranberries contrast with buttery pistachios, which have been shown to be good for your heart Effect of pistachio nut consumption on endothelial function and arterial stiffness. Kasliwal RR, Bansal M, Mehrotra R. Nutrition (Burbank, Los Angeles County, Calif.), 2014, Nov.;31(5):1873-1244.
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6. Blueberry Vanilla Greek Yogurt Granola Bars
Breakfast just got so much better. Take everything you love about your favorite Greek yogurt and pack it into this bar for a portable meal that’s perfect to toss into your gym bag. Unlike packaged bars with Greek yogurt, which actually use a powder and contain no yogurt, these are topped with the real thing. Mix up the fruit each time you make them to keep your taste buds entertained.
7. Thick, Chewy Granola Bars
Remember your favorite Chewy bars as a kid? Think of these as your even better grown-up version—and one you can customize. Use whatever nuts, fruit, and nut butter suit your fancy, and have fun—after all, when it comes to those foods, you really can’t go wrong.
Energy Bars
8. Energy Bars for Everyone
Topped with a layer of chocolate—that’s mixed with avocado to boot!—these bars are heaven. The bottom layer of almonds, coconut flour, and bananas is like banana bread. Energy bar or dessert? You decide; we’ll eat them whenever.
9. Vegan PB & J Energy Bars
Get all the goodness of your fave sandwich in this plant-based bar that’s almost as easy to make. Peanut butter and almonds will pack a protein punch to give you energy that’ll last through a workout, while cranberries and dates take the place of sugary jelly. Delicious!
10. Savory Energy Bars
There’s nothing seedy about these energy bars—except maybe the ingredient list. Quinoa plus sunflower, chia, pumpkin, and flax seeds are full of protein to give you lasting energy. Some finely shredded hard cheese of your choice will give this the salty boost your taste buds are looking for, and some garlic powder makes them taste like a healthy version of your favorite breadsticks.
11. Pomegranate Date Energy Bars
Pomegranates aren’t commonly found in bars—and that’s a benefit to making your own snacks: You can use whatever ingredients and come up with flavor combos you’d never find on shelves. Dates and quinoa mellow out their tartness here. Use black quinoa, which appears to have more nutrients than red or white varieties Characterisation of fatty acid, carotenoid, tocopherol/tocotrienol compositions and antioxidant activities in seeds of three Chenopodium quinoa Willd. genotypes. Tang Y, Li X, Chen PX. Food chemistry, 2014, Nov.;174():0308-8146.
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12. Chocolate Black Bean Happy Bars
Don't let the name turn you off: Black beans can make delicious, flour-free brownies and cookies, so why not bars too? Mixed with almond butter, cocoa, banana, raisins, and coconut, these are soft, sweet, and a good source of fiber and magnesium, a mineral involved in energy production, muscle function, and more.
13. Apricot Cashew Energy Bars
No chopping or baking required here! Cashews, apricots, coconut, oats, and a few other ingredients get whizzed up in the food processor, transferred to a pan, and put in the freezer to set. The apricots lend so much natural sweetness, you may not even want to add agave.
14. Vegan Pumpkin Pie Energy Bars
Pumpkin pie can be an everyday thing thanks to these. Cashews have a subtle flavor, so the pumpkin really shines. They’re great for those days when you’re in a not-totally-chewy yet not-totally-crunchy mood since the seeds on top add just enough texture.
15. Chocolate Berry Superfood Bars
Trust us, these taste as amazing as they look. The bright pink layer is filled with raspberries (hello, vitamin C) and coconut, which is praised for its good fats Effects of dietary coconut oil on the biochemical and anthropometric profiles of women presenting abdominal obesity. Assunção ML, Ferreira HS, dos Santos AF. Lipids, 2009, May.;44(7):1558-9307. Virgin coconut oil and its potential cardioprotective effects. Babu AS, Veluswamy SK, Arena R. Postgraduate medicine, 2015, Jan.;126(7):1941-9260.
. The chocolate base also features coconut as well as almonds, cashews, and peanut butter—that's enough to boost your energy that you don't need the exotic maca powder. All it takes is a food processor and half an hour in the freezer, and you’ve got a scrumptious treat.
Fruit Bars
16. Girl Scout Cookie Larabars
We love using the flavor of our favorite Girl Scout cookies to inspire healthy recipes, and these gluten-free, five-ingredient bars don't disappoint! The recipe only makes two bars, though, so multiply the ingredients a few times to make enough to last the week.
17. Whole-Grain Fruit Filled Bars
These bars are like a portable fruit cobbler or crumble. A jam filling is layered between buttery crusts made with whole-wheat flour and oats. We think adding nut butter would only make this even more delicious.
18. Raw Salted Almond Chocolate Snack Bars
Sweet, salty, and chocolaty is the answer to all your snacking dilemmas. These treats are naturally sweetened with dates, and using both almonds and almond butter makes them super nutty. A quick whirl in the food processor, and you’re done. Easy to make and clean up!
19. Homemade Gingerbread Larabars
Gingerbread has an addictive flavor, but too often the cookies are baked into little bricks. These bars have all the tasty in a soft, chewy package. Ginger, cinnamon, and cloves bring the spice you love and pair perfectly with almonds and pecans. Leave the cookies for making pretty houses—we’d rather eat these.
20. Dried Fruit Bars
It doesn’t get much easier than these bars, made with just two ingredients: dried apple rings and dried apricots. Purée in a food processor, place on a baking pan, and roll out to your desired thickness. The best part? You can cut and serve these immediately, no cooling or baking necessary.
21. 3-Ingredient No-Bake Energy Bars
The name says it all: three ingredients. Actually, that isn't all because you'll be happily surprised at how tasty and versatile these are. Pick a nut or seed, add a dried fruit (or a few), and combine with dates in a food processor. Then you just have to chill and cut into bars.
Protein Bars
22. Healthy Matcha Green Tea Fudge Protein Bars
Matcha is making waves everywhere and now you can even add it to your bars. The ground green tea from Japan is known for ultra-high antioxidant level, and the caffeine may help keep you going in the afternoons. Topped with chocolate, this snack is so much better than a mocha latte.
23. 5-Ingredient Protein Bars
OK, so there’s six ingredients if you drizzle chocolate on top (and why would we not?). Still, these are incredibly easy and filling with a rich peanut butter flavor. They make a great post-workout snack or breakfast on mornings when you don’t have time to even heat up some instant oatmeal.
24. Savory Power Bars
When you’re in the mood for something a little less sweet and a bit more salty, these are for you. Quinoa, nuts, and Parmesan (or nutritional yeast if you’re dairy-free) make these the perfect savory bar. For an extra boost of protein, eliminate the oats and double the pea protein. The 13 grams of protein in a bar will keep you full until your next meal.
25. Vegan Chocolate Almond Protein Bars
Protein powder isn’t reserved for post-workout smoothies. These bars combine vegan protein powder with crunchy almonds for a huge protein payoff—almost 13 grams per bar! Sweetened with maple syrup and optional dairy-free chocolate chips, these taste like dessert and are good for you.
26. Fuel-to-Go Homemade Protein Bars
With four varieties of seeds, two different berries, and some crisped rice, these bars pack a lot of flavor into a small package. They come together the same way as traditional Rice Krispie treats—but with peanut butter rather than marshmallows. A much better choice for protein bars (much as we love marshmallows—in cocoa or desserts, that is).
27. No-Bake Banana Nut Protein Bars
If you’re not in the mood to stand over your oven while you wait for your banana bread to bake, you’re in luck. This option gives you all the sweet, comfort food goodness of the bread packed into a smaller, healthier square. And, unlike bread, they’re foolproof: You can’t burn something you don’t bake!
28. Chocolate Coconut Butter Protein Bars
These are perfect solution for Mounds bar fans. The base layer is bursting with coconut butter, oil, milk, and flour in addition to shredded coconut so there’s no way these won’t taste coconutty. The topping has a heart-healthy helping of dark cacao powder sweetened with honey and coconut oil. We’ll take them over candy bars made with PGPR (what?) and hydrolyzed milk protein any day.
Nutty Bars
29. Kind Bars 2.0
Who knew nuts and seeds could look so pretty? But it's the taste here that you'll really love. The bonus is that sunflower, pumpkin, chia, and sesame seeds may be small, but they’re rich in vitamin E, zinc, omega-3 fatty acids, and copper respectively. And don't skip the orange zest—that little amount adds a ton of zing.
30. Blueberry Nut and Seed Bars
A lot of bars rely heavily on raisins or flavored raisins as the fruit, so our taste buds cheered when we found these. Blueberries are rich in anthocyanins, antioxidants that pack heart-health benefits High anthocyanin intake is associated with a reduced risk of myocardial infarction in young and middle-aged women. Cassidy A, Mukamal KJ, Liu L. Circulation, 2013, Mar.;127(2):1524-4539. Phytochemical properties and antioxidant capacities of various colored berries. Chen L, Xin X, Yuan Q. Journal of the science of food and agriculture, 2013, Jul.;94(2):1097-0010. Anthocyanins and heart health. Mazza GJ. Annali dell'Istituto superiore di sanità, 2008, Jun.;43(4):0021-2571.
. A touch of cinnamon and cardamom takes these to the next level.
31. Orange Honey Nut Bars
A packaged orange-flavored bar would most likely have "natural flavors" in it and no orange. (If you could even find an orange bar.) These use orange zest and loads of it for a tasty anti-inflammatory boost Oral administration of d-limonene controls inflammation in rat colitis and displays anti-inflammatory properties as diet supplementation in humans. d'Alessio PA, Ostan R, Bisson JF. Life sciences, 2013, May.;92(24-26):1879-0631.
. Cashews, almonds, and pecans bring the crunch, and ginger adds a nice, spicy hint.
32. Apricot-Almond “Kind” Bars
We love big chunks of fruit in our nut bars, and here sweet apricot breaks up the full flavors of almond and cashews. Coconut flakes add such a tropical twist that we want to try these using dried pineapple rather than apricot next time. Piña colada bar? Yes, please!
33. Paleo Nut Bars
Paleo enthusiasts don’t shun dried fruit, but they try not to overdo it. So this fruit-free bar is all nuts, seeds, coconut, and honey. That adds up to a lot of fiber, protein, and good fats to keep you full for hours. But how’s it taste? We give it a perfect 10.
34. Dark Chocolate Nut Bars
Dark chocolate and sea salt are a perfect pair, and almonds as the third wheel only makes things even better. (If only that were the case when going out in groups of three.) While these bars may look complicated, all you have to do is chop and stir to make them. If you have the time, roast the nuts first—it enhances the flavor like whoa.