Pumpkin Protein Bars

These are my favorite homemade protein bars yet! They turned out fluffy, just sweet enough, and the BEST part....my three year old loved them!! I found the original recipe at melaniemitro.com, but I made a few changes based on what I had on hand.

Mix the following in a bowl:

• ½ C. Succinate (any natural sugar will do, but Succinate can be found in the natural foods section of most grocery stores)
• 1/4 C. applesauce
• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 ½ tsp. ground ginger
• ½ tsp. ground clove

(I didn't have cloves or ginger on hand so I used 1 tsp cinnamon and 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice in place of the spices above and it turned out great)

• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 4 large egg whites
• 1 - 15 oz. can of raw pumpkin
• 2 C. oat or whole wheat flour
• 2 scoops vanilla protein powder
• ½ cup almond milk
• ½ C. chopped walnuts (optional)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 9x13 pan with oil. Pour mixture into greased pan and bar for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean. If you'd like to add chocolate chips, it would probably be delicious! To keep it lower calorie, I would sprinkle on a handful of mini chips just before baking. Makes 24 squares. Perfect for an afternoon snack with coffee. :)