Homemade Peanut Butter Granola Bars

We love having healthy snacks in the house, and these healthy Homemade Peanut Butter Granola Bars are a staple in our home. These chewy granola bars are what we grab for when we need a quick snack before dinner or as we are running out the door without breakfast.

This is my years-old, family favorite base granola bar recipe that you can customize for your family. Plus, they’re no bake! When the boys were young, they were also called Mom’s Really Good Granola Bars. 

These homemade granola bars are better than store bought granola bars for several reasons. The most important reason for me is that there are no preservatives to keep them shelf stable, but I also love that I am able to customize them perfectly for my favorite flavors. Store bought bars have nothing on these.

With their perfect chewy texture, these are satisfying to eat and help to kick sugar cravings to the curb. I love that they’re naturally sweetened with honey and so easy to make.

Where’s the recipe?

Here at My Crazy Good Life, we write recipes that anyone can make – whether you’re brand new to the kitchen or have been cooking for years.

If you’re needing ingredient information, detailed instructions, recipe tips, and calculations for healthy eating plans like Weight Watchers and the 21 Day Fix, you’ll find that information below.

Just need the recipe? You’ll want to scroll down to the bottom of the post to the printable recipe for the ingredient amounts and basic recipe instructions for these Homemade Peanut Butter Granola Bars.

Ingredients in Healthy Homemade Granola Bars:

This is the base granola bar mixture.

• Oats I usually use regular oats or rolled oats. I’d stay away from steel cut oats because the texture isn’t as easy to eat and they’ll need different peanut butter and honey ratios. If you’re gluten-free, you’ll want to find gluten-free oats that have not been grown in wheat fields.
• Natural Peanut Butter Crunchy peanut butter or creamy peanut butter, whatever your preference is. I buy peanut butter that only has peanuts and salt as an ingredient – I try to stay away from palm oil. Other nut butter options (sunflower seed butter, almond butter) should work just as well.
• Honey Typically I’d say that you could swap this with pure maple syrup, but the consistency of syrup isn’t what you need for this recipe. I’d stick with honey.

Optional ingredients:

Adding these, or other optional ingredients, might mean that you need to use additional peanut butter or honey in your recipe.

2-4 tablespoons of:

• Flax seed
• Chia seeds
• MCT powder
• 7 grain cereal
• Collagen powder

One quarter cup of:

• protein powder
• unsweetened shredded coconut
• chopped nuts: I prefer almonds, walnuts, or cashews
• dried fruits like dried cranberries, raisins, or goji berries (I prefer to chop them so the texture isn’t thrown off, and the bars stick together better)
• chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, white chocolate chips, dairy free chocolate chips. If you’re looking for a chocolatey taste without the sugar, use chocolate protein powder or some cacao powder.

For the recipe that we make regularly, I use chia seeds, vanilla protein powder, shredded coconut, dried low sugar cranberries and raisins (or goji berries), and dairy free mini chocolate chips.

How to make these Healthy Homemade Peanut Butter Bars:

1. Chop the nuts and dried fruit, if you’re using them.
2. Add peanut butter, honey, oats, and any optional ingredients into a bowl and mix them well. This is SO much easier with a stand mixer.
3. Grab a 9×9 baking sheet and line it with some parchment paper. If you don’t have a 9×9 pan, any pan will do–just keep an eye on how thick your bars are.
4. Pour the peanut butter mixture onto the parchment paper. This will help you handle the granola bars to shape them.
5. Cover the mixture up with another piece of parchment paper, and begin rolling the bars flat. You can use a can of soda or beans if you don’t have a rolling pin that will fit inside the pan.
6. After your oat mixture is nice and flat, throw the top piece of parchment away and use the bottom one to lift out your granola bars onto a cooling rack.
7. Push the granola into a nice firm square on all sides, then let it sit and harden for at least an hour.
8. Cut your granola bars. I use a pizza cutter.

How to store these Peanut Butter Granola Bars:

I store my granola bars in a ziplock container in the fridge. I typically make at least a double batch and have had no problem storing them in the fridge for a month, but they typically don’t last that long.

These granola bars can also be frozen. I freeze them when I travel with them or when I want to prep.

Recipe Tips for making healthy homemade granola bars:

• This recipe is really flexible. Don’t stress about perfect measurements.
• Depending on the brand of peanut butter you’re using, you might wan to add more or leave a little out. Typically, natural peanut butter (with only peanuts and salt) is thinner than peanut butter that contains palm oil. Start by following the recipe directions and if you’re struggling to keep the bars together, add more peanut butter (or honey).

Do these Granola Bars have protein?

Each bar made with just the base recipe has 6 grams of protein before adding any optional ingredients. Adding in protein powder or collagen can increase the amount of protein per bar.

Healthy Eating Plans

21 Day Fix Granola Bars

To make this recipe as compatible as possible with weight loss plans, I’d stick with the healthy additions and opt out of the ones with sugar. This is a calorie-dense recipe, and I wouldn’t rely on it as a daily snack if you’re trying to lose weight.

With all of the teaspoons for honey and peanut butter, it doesn’t work to count these in Portion Fix containers. These are a yellow container treat swap, which means that three times a week you could eat these (or another treat) and swap it for a regular yellow container.

You can read more about both yellow and purple container treat swaps right here.

Weight Watchers Granola Bars:

For 16 servings, each serving counts as 9 Blue Plan Points | 9 Green Plan Points | 7 Purple Plan Points

If you’re on the 2023 Point Plan, count each serving as 9 points. If you’d like to reduce the points, divide this recipe into more servings. 32 servings will make each bar 5 points.

More No Bake Snacks:

• No Bake Coconut Bars
• Tahini Protein Balls
• Coconut Lime Balls

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Homemade Peanut Butter Granola Bars

Created by: Becca Ludlum

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 20 minutes mins

Approximate Serving Size: 1 bar

Servings 16 people

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These Homemade Peanut Butter Granola Bars are a chewy, easy to make, delicious no bake snack recipe! Base recipe is just 3 simple ingredients.

Equipment

• Pizza Cutter
• Parchment Paper
• Mixing Bowls

Ingredients 

US CustomaryMetric

• ▢ 1 cup peanut butter crunchy or creamy
• ▢ 1 cup honey
• ▢ 3 cups oats

Now you have your basic granola bars. Add what you like from the list below to customize them! More options can be found in the recipe post.

• ▢ 2-4 tbsps flax seed
• ▢ 1-2 scoops protein powder
• ▢ 1/2 cup shredded coconut unsweetened
• ▢ 1/4 cup chopped nuts almonds/walnuts/cashews
• ▢ 1/4 cup dried cranberries raisins, chocolate chips – anything yummy :)

Instructions

• Chop the nuts and dried fruit, if you're using them.
• Add peanut butter, honey, oats, and any optional ingredients into a bowl and mix them well. 1 cup peanut butter 1 cup honey 3 cups oats
• Grab a 9×9 baking sheet and line it with some parchment paper. If you don't have a 9×9 pan, any pan will do–just keep an eye on how thick your bars are.
• Pour the peanut butter mixture onto the parchment paper. This will help you handle the granola bars to shape them.
• Cover the mixture up with another piece of parchment paper, and begin rolling the bars flat. You can use a can of soda or beans if you don't have a rolling pin that will fit inside the pan.
• After your oat mixture is nice and flat, throw the top piece of parchment away and use the bottom one to lift out your granola bars onto a cooling rack.
• Push the granola into a nice firm square on all sides, then let it sit in the fridge and harden for an hour or so if you have the time. They'll be a little easier to cut, but the rest time is optional.
• Cut your granola bars. I use a pizza cutter.

Notes

21 Day Fix Granola Bars

To make this recipe as compatible as possible with weight loss plans, I’d stick with the healthy additions and opt out of the ones with sugar. This is a calorie-dense recipe, and I wouldn’t rely on it as a daily snack if you’re trying to lose weight.

With all of the teaspoons for honey and peanut butter, it doesn’t work to count these in Portion Fix containers. These are a yellow container treat swap, which means that three times a week you could eat these (or another treat) and swap it for a regular yellow container.

You can read more about both yellow and purple container treat swaps right here.

Weight Watchers Granola Bars:

For 16 servings, each serving counts as 9 Blue Plan Points | 9 Green Plan Points | 7 Purple Plan Points

If you’re on the 2023 Point Plan, count each serving as 9 points. If you’d like to reduce the points, divide this recipe into more servings. 32 servings will make each bar 5 points.

Nutrition

Calories: 127kcal | Carbohydrates: 19.1g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 4.4g | Saturated Fat: 0.9g | Cholesterol: 0mg | Sodium: 30mg | Potassium: 112mg | Fiber: 2.3g | Sugar: 5.9g | Calcium: 10mg | Iron: 1mg

Make This Recipe?

Make sure to follow on Pinterest @bludlum and on Instagram @beccaludlum