Make Your Own Easy Meal Replacement Bars

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the oats with the TVP or crushed nuts. Set aside.

Into a microwaveable spouted container (like a glass measuring cup), add the peanut butter, honey and vanilla. Microwave for 30 seconds.

To the heated mixture, stir in the salt and any additional spice you’d like (cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.). Add milk to the wet mixture and stir again.

If you’d like you can add sweetener of any sort to the mix. If you’ll be using chocolate, though, it’s probably unnecessary.

Use a spoon or your hands to evenly coat the oat mixture with the wet mixture. Pour the wet mixture over the oat mixture in the bowl and stir until evenly distributed. If you’d like, you can throw in raisins or chocolate chips at this point. You could probably increase the milk by a little bit if you needed to, depending on your ingredients.

Line a small baking dish with a piece of waxed paper large enough to come up and hang over all sides. (You can criss-cross two pieces if necesary.)

Mash the mixture down into the pan, being sure to evenly fill all corners. Continue mashing until the mixture is densly packed and even. (This is similar to making Rice Krispie Treats.)

Cover the baking dish and place in the refrigerator for 3 hours. (You can probably speed this up using the freezer, but make sure it is well covered to avoid humidity issues.)

When chilled, remove the pan from the fridge and use the waxed paper overhang to lift the rectangle out of the baking pan. It will come out as one big, pliable piece.

Use a large knife to cut the rectangle into 8 meal-sized or 16 snack-sized bars.

Keeping the bars on the waxed paper, you can melt chocolate chips to use for drizzling or dipping if you like, or you can leave the bars as they are.

Refrigerate uneaten bars in an airtight container. They will keep for several days this way. Or, for the sake of transportability, you can seal the bars in individual small sandwich bags in the refrigerator for grab-and-go ease.