Homemade Quest Bars

While I didn't eat a lot of Quest Bars during my weight loss phase, I now eat one daily during maintenance.  Early in my maintenance, I used them for extra protein, but now I use them to supplement my daily dose of Miralax for bathroom regularity.    I began looking for a cheaper substitute for Quest Bars that contained the same fiber but found nothing commercially made with a similar nutritional profile. I found this recipe online. If Quest Bars are part of your regime, you may want to give these a try.

Busy But Heathy - Homemade Quest Bars

It contains suggestions for many variations of the bars - flavours, textures, etc. The 'base' for many of them is protein powder, a little almond flour and VitaFiber.  Then, you can add whatever you like as a secondary flavour.  I tried making a White Chocolate Raspberry one with vanilla protein powder in the base, but it was way too sweet for my taste.  I think the recipe would be much better with unflavoured protein powder, but since I didn't have any on hand, I cut back the amount of protein from 1 scoop to 2/3 scoop and upped the almond flour from 2 tsp to a generous 1 tbsp.   Also, I halved the amount of white chocolate and found I like it best just laid on top of the bar after I've formed it.  

I also think they would be good with a full scoop of peanut butter or other flavoured protein, 2 tsp of almond flour, 2 tbsp of VitaFiber and nothing else.  If you added something to a flavoured protein powder, I would suggest something savoury instead of sweet (eg. 2 ground almonds).  I've made them in the plastic bag as suggested, but also just formed the bar by hand and it turned out just fine.  Here is one made with my modified base and sprinkled with stevia sweetened hazelnut milk chocolate.  I put them in the refrigerator to get them a little more firm, but if I didn't do that, the texture would be more like a soft but chewy cookie.  

Whatever your personal preference, be sure to enter the recipe into MFP to ensure it meets your macros.  These types of bars can be very calorie dense so be careful!  The one pictured below is about 210 calories and is very similar in size to an actual Quest Bar, which I've added for comparison.  Have fun experimenting and be sure to let us know how things turn out!

 Nice going! Certainly sounds easy enough. Is it really cheaper once you purchase everything? I can get a variety of 4 different Quest Bar flavors at Trader Joe's for $2.39 US. AT GNC they have the full line, but are more expensive, $2.89 US I think. What do they cost in Canada? 

No idea how things would compare, but in Canada the best deal for Quest Bars is about $3.50 ($40 per case of 12 at GNC with membership).  Maybe not a whole lot cheaper . . . haven't done a straight up comparison.  A decent protein powder is less than $2 per serving and the Vitafiber is less than $1 serving.  So maybe it depends on what price you can get the ingredients for . . . and only worth it if you're eating them daily (30+ per month)

My cross post of this info yielded a cheaper brand of the fiber. It's called Fiber Yum, available on Amazon.  If I recall my calculations correctly, there are about 40 servings in this size so that's quite cheap in the U.S.  I've not been able to find a supplier that ships to Canada yet ....

I saw that when I ordered yesterday. I went ahead with the stuff you knew to be good to try first- then I will have an idea of how it compares to the cheaper stuff. It came in a quart, so it will last a while anyway.