Peanut Butter Rice Crispy Bars and a Swim Workout

It’s hot here in LA. A couple nights ago I went into a no-bake dessert frenzy, and I made those cute little Raw Chocolate Chip Cookie Bites, as well as these delicious peanut butter crisp rice bars. We’re still chugging away at that bag of crisp rice cereal, although to be honest, I’m really going to miss it once it’s gone… We may just have to get another one. It has proven to be an extremely useful ingredient in all sorts of desserts, like my Chocolate Chip Crisp Cookies and my Peanut Butter Granola Bars. The crispy little nuggets add a whole new dimension to desserts and bars. These crisp rice bars were based on this Homemade Luna Bar recipe from Chocolate Covered Katie, but they turned out more like regular rice crispy bars than Luna bars. They were not as chewy as Luna bars. I omitted the chocolate topping, since I didn’t have any chocolate sauce, but these were just perfect without it. I also used both peanut butter and almond butter, since I didn’t have enough peanut butter to make the full recipe. Almond butter is naturally sweeter, so I love using it as an alternative to peanut butter. For the protein powder, I did a lot of research on what the best protein powder is for women, but I ended up just getting Aria Women’s Protein Powder that I found at Trader Joe’s. I increased the amount of protein powder in these bars to try and fool myself into thinking these are healthy. Considering the ingredients, they’re not unhealthy, but there are probably better things for you. However, what they lack in health benefits they make up in deliciousness. After my first bite of these rice crispy bars, the perfect, crispy texture and the sweet, nutty flavor instantly won me over. These will definitely be a repeat recipe, perhaps with some additional ingredients when I make this recipe again. Here’s the recipe with my changes.

Peanut Butter Rice Crispy Bars

adapted from Chocolate Covered Katie

Ingredients

3 cups crisp rice cereal

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup almond butter (you can just use all peanut butter, or all almond butter)

1/2 cup agave sweetener (or honey, or brown rice syrup)

1/3 cup protein powder (I used Aria Women’s Protein Supplement, Vanilla)

Directions

Grease a 9×9 pan.

Heat the nut butter, vanilla, salt, and sweetener in a small saucepan over low heat until it is easily pourable. Pour over the crisp rice cereal and protein powder, and stir very well, making sure to coat all the crispies with the wet mixture. Press the mixture into the prepared pan and freeze for at least half an hour before cutting. Store in the refrigerator. Enjoy!

Print

A beautiful, crispy interior laced with nutty goodness

I may have eaten this many crispy bars in one sitting…

Now for the swimming part! I did my longest swim workout of the summer to date this morning. Like I said, it’s hot, hot, hot here, so it was a relief to get into the pool. I did Energy System Monday, just putting my body through all its swimming paces. It was a long workout, with varied levels of intensity, and a great workout to ease back into swimming after a weekend off.

Energy System Monday

200 swim, pull, IM, swim

6×200 @3:00 pull, descend 1-3, 4-6

4×150 @3:00 kick/drill/swim by 50, IM order

12×100 @1:40 3x(3 IM, 1 easy free)

24×50, 4 rounds of 6

Rounds 1 and 3 @:50, 5 fast free, 1 easy free

Rounds 2 and 4 @1:00, 5 fly/free, 1 easy free

150 easy choice

150 pull breathe 5-7-9 by 50

2×150 @3:00 75 inc. dolphin kick underwater off the wall, 75 inc. breastroke pulldowns off the wall

Total: 5800 yards

Time: 1 hr, 45 min