The Oat Meal: Make your own protein bars

JOE's new health feature takes a look at how to make some healthy meals on the cheap, as well as cleaning up some of your favourites

For our first stop, we decided to make our own protein bars, since a lot of protein bars on the market are not cheap and they do you about as much good as a chocolate bar. But never fear, JOE is here to save you some time and money with this tasty home-made solution. Provided that you like peanut butter, you're going to love them. If you don't like peanut butter for some reason that isn't a nut-related allergy, then you need to change your mind, this stuff is magic, and it's good for you, too. When buying peanut butter though, try and get the highest percentage of peanuts that you can, the more the better. The one we used was all peanuts, and that's what you should try and aim for. Anything in the 90% range is decent too.

What you need:

1 scoop protein (we used vanilla Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Whey protein, but you can use chocolate if you fancy it either) 2 cups porridge 1 tablespoons dessicated coconut (you can get this at most health food shops) 2 tablespoons maple syrup 3 tablespoons peanut butter, preferably crunchy (we used this fantastic gear from Bulk Powders, it's made from 100% peanuts and sets you back just over €5 for a kilo) Optional half cup water to bind the whole thing together. What to do: Making these couldn't be simpler either. Get a big bowl, dump in the porridge, and then throw everything else on top except the water. Mix it all together, and add the water gradually as you think you need it, to get the whole mixture to stick together. Once that's looking a bit like a mushed up mix that could resemble granola bars, grease a baking tray with some coconut oil (the healthy option), and spread it out into the tray. You can add another bit of coconut on top if you like. You can pop it in the fridge for a few hours to set, or lash it in the freezer for an hour and then keep it in the fridge afterwards. Ten minutes work, but a whole load of money saved, and it should make about 8-10 bars. That's your elevenses sorted for tomorrow so. A big hat-tip to Susan Jane Murray, whose original  recipe we tweaked a little.