These 5 minute, no bake peanut butter granola bars are not only delicious and nutritious, but they are also vegan, and, if you use gluten free certified oats and brown rice cereal, gluten free!
Oh yeah: and you don’t even need to turn on your oven! They’re the perfect portable snack – especially for summer.
Make a big batch and enjoy them all week. They also freeze well if you want to save some for later!
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Homemade Granola Bars with Peanut Butter
One of the most popular recipes on my blog, these homemade peanut butter granola bars are perfect for something healthy to grab while on the go — whether it be at work, school, or the great outdoors.
They are also absolutely delicious. Everyone I’ve made these for loves them! And you definitely won’t miss the artificial ingredients/sweeteners of most pre-packaged granola bars you’d find at the store.
They’re crunchy, salty, a little sweet, and perfectly peanut-buttery. All the best things in a tasty granola bar you can take anywhere!
Check out the video in this post to see just how easy these granola bars are to make.
Essentially, all you have to do is microwave the wet ingredients, mix with the dry ingredients, pour into a shallow dish, cool in the fridge, then cut into bars. That’s it! They really are that quick and easy.
I recommend making a double or triple batch. Enjoy some that week, freeze some for later (you’ll want to freeze them in individual bars for easy grabbing), and then gift the rest! I recommend wrapping them in parchment paper so they don’t stick together.
These make an especially nice gift for new parents, or a friend or family member short on time.
Homemade Granola Bar Variations
I really love how flexible these bars are. The variations are endless! Here are some ideas for how to mix them up and optimize them for your tasting pleasure. 🙂
The flax seeds/chia seeds are tasty and nutritious (great healthy fat!), but unnecessary to the success of the bars. You can leave them out to save money. The vanilla extract and coconut are also tasty, but can be left out with no problems.
Roasted and salted pumpkin and sunflower seeds taste the best because of the salty/sweet contrast with the brown rice syrup.
Dried fruit — cranberries, raisins, apricots, goji berries, etc. — is another tasty addition, as are chocolate chips.
Instead of peanut butter, you can try using another kind of nut or seed butter. I also love this recipe with almond butter!
And now, you’ll find the full peanut butter granola bars recipe at the bottom of this post. But feel free to get creative with the mix ins, as I mentioned above!
Love no bake snacks? Here are some others to try:
- Oatmeal Raisin Energy Bites (vegan, gluten free with gf oats)
- Chocolate Coconut Almond Balls (gluten free with gf oats)
- Cinnamon Raisin Almond Balls (vegan, gluten free – only 3 ingredients!)
- Salty Maple Nut Energy Bites (vegan, gluten free)
- Stuffed Dates with Peanut Butter (vegan, gluten free)
- Savory Curry Granola Bars (gluten free)
- Savory No Bake Honey Mustard Granola Bars (gluten free)
- Tart Cherry Pie Snack Balls (vegan, gluten free)
Want even more similar recipes?
Check this out: 10 Healthy On the Go Snack Recipes
5 Minute No Bake Peanut Butter Granola Bars
These healthy bars are perfect for something healthy to grab while on the go — whether it be at work, school, or the great outdoors.
Ingredients:
Dry (use scant measurements):
- 1 & 3/4 C rolled oats
- 1 C crisp puffed brown rice cereal
- 1/4 C pumpkin seeds
- 1/4 C sunflower seeds
- 1/4 C chia seeds OR 1/8 C finely ground flaxseed (both optional)
- 1/4 C unsweetened coconut (optional)
Wet:
- 1/2 C brown rice syrup
- 1/3 C creamy peanut butter
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract (optional)
Instructions:
- Add all the dry ingredients to a large bowl.
- In a separate (microwave safe) bowl, mix together the wet ingredients, then microwave them for about 20 to 30 seconds. This will make it easier to mix and add to the dry ingredients since it’s really sticky!
- Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix! Keep mixing until the wet binding ingredients are as well distributed as possible.
- Put the mixture into a shallow pan and flatten it down. Place pan in fridge to let the bars chill/set.
- After about 30 minutes in the fridge (or you can wait until the next day – whatever works), cut them into bars, then wrap them up in foil and store back in the fridge (or in the freezer!) for easy grabbing and go-ing!
