5-Ingredient Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Granola

I really enjoy a great granola bar, and I usually keep a few in my purse for those emergency snack situations. As much as I love granola, I have never made my own until now. When looking for a quality granola bar I normally choose the one with the least amount of ingredients.

My daughter and I were looking at various brands, and we were happy that there were several plant based varieties but disappointed at the amount of sugar packed into those little packages. Some of the ones marketed specifically to kids had the highest sugar content per serving! One of  our favorite brands is Made Good. They really know what they are doing, and one of their bars or packages of granola bites are usually in my daughter's lunch bag several days of the week.

This time we decided to make our own chocolate chunk granola, and we had a blast doing it. When you make it yourself you know exactly what goes into it, you control the sugar content, and you can put together your favorite plant based flavors and easily make some delicious granola yourself!

Not all vegan protein powders are created equal. While researching several brands I was appalled at some of the ingredients that were inside. Some people are not particular about ingredients as long as the product is vegan and no animals were abused or killed in the process, but I look at other factors as well. Some of the protein powders contained high amounts of:

• lead
• mercury
• cadmium
• arsenic
• solvents
• chemicals
• GMO

and a host of other not so clean ingredients. I learned that it's not just the ingredients that matter but also how the protein is processed. I have not looked so closely at this in the past. All that concerned me was that it was vegan and tasted good, but those days are gone. I received this pea protein powder from Basik Health Company, but it was before I started doing my research. Was I going to have to discard it? Not at all. After looking at the company's website, I knew that I had a clean, quality, protein powder. The JustPea protein is

• dairy-free
• soy-free
• gluten-free
• GMO-free
• grown, processed and packaged in America
• no stevia, sweeteners, or additives

and many more outstanding qualities. Because the company is committed to creating clean and transparent products without artificial ingredients and proprietary blends, they even post their heavy metal testing results on the website.

I tossed all of the ingredients into my food processor, and the protein powder blended smoothly with the peanut butter and made some tasty granola.

After I pressed the granola into an 8 x 8 inch pan and placed it in the freezer, it was ready to eat within 30 min.

Sweet, chunky, dark chocolatey, snackable, and only five ingredients!

Author: The Sensible Vegan
Recipe Type: Snack
Cuisine: Vegan
Serving: 8

Ingredients

• Two cups packed, pitted dates
• 1/3 cup gluten free sprouted rolled oats
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 2 tbsps dark chocolate baking chunks
• 1 scoop JustPea pea protein powder​

Instructions

• Add dates to food processor and pulse into small bits. You may need to push some of the mixture down with a spoon to make sure there are no large chunks and everything blends smoothly.
• Add peanut butter, sprouted oats, and protein powder and pulse until well blended.
• Open processor and add in chocolate chunks, but do not blend.
• Scoop out mixture and transfer to lined 8x8 inch dish.
• Press evenly into dish.
• Set for 30 min. in freezer.
• Slice evenly into bars or squares.
  

Nutrition Information
Serving size:  1 bar Calories: 170.5 Fat: 11.5g  Saturated Fat: 2.6g 
Carbohydrates: 13g   Sugar: 3.4g   Sodium: 114.8mg  Fiber: 3g   Protein: 8g

​If you made this recipe, please tag me @thesensiblevegan, #thesensiblevegan!

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