Healthier No Bake Peanut Butter Cookie Bars

Healthier No Bake Peanut Butter Cookie Bars are a creamy, cold, slightly sweet treat that is packed with rich peanut butter flavor and can be whipped up in less than 5 minutes!

Hi Friends, happy Tuesday!  Remember last week when I posted the Zucchini Noodle Casserole and I said that it was healthy because it was veggie packed, not necessarily because it was low carb.

The very same day I found myself remaking it and googling “low carb desserts” #eatmywords.  Of course, there are situations when allthecarbs are absolutely appropriate.  Like after the hardest workout of your life, on your birthday, or some other special day.

Then, there are other situations when a lower carb option is preferred.  Last Friday was one of those nights.  We invited some friends over, one of which has diabetes.

It isn’t a big deal, he understands and controls his blood sugar better than anyone I’ve ever met.  Given the fact that I am a Dietitian I would say I’m qualified to judge how well someone controls their blood sugar (check out these tips on how to read your blood work and balance your own blood sugar) and that would mean he is good.  He doesn’t avoid all carbs, but he does balance his plate really well.

I wanted to make a dessert that everyone would enjoy, but also, wouldn’t be a total sugar bomb.  I did my usual thing: I googled recipes, didn’t like any of them and ended up doing my own thing.

The result was these delicious bars that everyone absolutely enjoyed.  Our friends brought Panera cookies so we all enjoyed those as well. Our friend with Diabetes skipped the cookies and had one of my bars instead.  He said they were good, like the old Atkins bars.

Not sure if that is good or bad but I have since finished off the leftovers of these and would gladly make more for any occasion.  In fact, I thought they were creamy cold sweet peanut butter heaven.

Then again, I’ve rediscovered peanut butter in the last few years and have been making up for lost time since I hated it the prior 15 years of my life.

Why would anyone hate peanut butter?  Maybe, just maybe, because you climbed up on the shelf and ate an entire bag of Safeway select peanut butter cups.  This, of course, would cause you to be very ill and subsequently not like peanut butter.  Took me 15 years to get over that incident, so like I said, I’m making up for lost time!  Peanut butter every day keeps the doctor away right?

Luckily this lower sugar dessert is packed with more protein, fiber, and healthy fats so I can totally justify polishing off the rest of the pan solo.  I would definitely add these to yesterday’s 20 Healthy & Simple Dessert to Satisfy Your Night Time Sweet Tooth post!

Since  I don’t usually calculate calorie counts for desserts (see my story here), but for this one, I was super curious about the sugar content.

Estimates per serving, divided into 10 servings:

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