

As anyone who follows my Instagram or Twitter will probably have noticed, 2013 for me has, so far, been a complete and utter health kick. I’ve seriously cleaned up my ‘diet’ (I do hate that word…), and have been attempting to ‘eat clean’ for at least 80% of my time, and so far, it’s going pretty well.
The only downside? Well, being a student, I’m not exactly made of money – and whilst I am starting to fall in love with both the ginger bread and banana bread varieties of Nakd bars (after a slightly rocky start – I really don’t recommend any of the ‘chocolate’ flavours…), they’re far from cheap to keep on hand as a regular snack, and I started brainstorming one or two clean, homemade snack ideas of my own to fill the void.
These peanut butter granola bars, recipe below, work out at around 18p each if you use the brands I suggest (cheaper if you don’t mind them not being 100% ‘clean’), and make the perfect accompaniment to your mid-morning cup of coffee (or tea, if you’re going one better than me and cutting back on caffeine!) – satisfying, slightly sweet, and guilt-free, with only 148 calories, 14g carbs, 8g fat (the good kind!) and 5g of protein per bar*.
I use Waitrose’s ‘Essential’ wholenut peanut butter for this recipe, as a lot of regular supermarket varieties tend to use sugar/flavourings/preservatives, and I prefer this ‘nuttier’ tasting one. It’s nowhere near as sweet as conventional peanut butter, so I’d recommend trying some on its own before using it! I also recommend Flahavan’s Irish porridge oats, which are 100% wholegrain, and Waitrose pure clear squeezy honey for this recipe, but obviously, you can use anything you’ve already got, or prefer.
Low-Calorie Peanut Butter Granola Bars.
* Calorie and nutritional information calculated using the MyFitnessPal Recipe Calculator, and using the specific brands mentioned above.
You can find more of my recipes here, most of which now have calorie values added, if you’re counting!