The Wimbledon Champ and the Olympian

In honor of Rafael Nadal, who defeated Roger Federer after the longest Wimbledon men's final in history yesterday (nearly 5 hours!), and Michael Phelps, who has competed in seven events and broken two world records at the U.S. Olympic Swimming trials (so far), I present a protein bar fit for a champion!

Cast of characters:
1 cup soy protein powder (I used vanilla flavored)
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup puffed brown rice
1/2 cup oat bran
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup milk chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups plain fat free yogurt
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 tsp. salt

Hardware:
2 mixing bowls
1 greased 9x13 pan
1 greased cookie sheet

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. If you're using a glass 9x13 pan, make it 325.

First, mix all of your dry ingredients together. If you use your hands, it's easier to get the brown sugar broken up.

















When you finish, it will look something like this:

















Next, whisk together the yogurt, peanut butter and vanilla until smooth.

















Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir to combine. You'll need to use your hands near the end as it has the texture of very stiff cookie dough.
































Press the dough evenly into the greased 9x13 pan and cook for 15 minutes.

















Remove the pan and cut into 16 bars. A pizza cutter is useful here.

















Arrange the cut bars on a cookie sheet.

















Return the bars to the oven for another 15 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. If you like crispier bars (I do), simply turn the oven off after 15 minutes and leave them in the warm oven for up to 45 minutes.

















The facts (per bar): 205 calories, 6 grams of fat, 26 grams of carbohydrates, and 16 grams of protein.

One of the great things about this recipe is it's versatility. If you want it to be dairy free, replace the yogurt with silken tofu, mashed banana, or applesauce. Trade out the chocolate chips for dried fruit and/or nuts if you want to go even healthier.