I have been longing to make my own protein bars for years now. With the amount of bars that I go through in any given week, I always figured I could save some money if I made my own. I also thought it would just be a fun thing to do.
I even bought a book a while back about making your own protein bars. Sadly, the book has been a dust collector as I have not yet attempted to make my own bars from scratch.
As I was cruising the pages of Thrive Market a few weeks ago, I came across a product I knew I had to try immediately. It was a make your own protein bar mix by a company called Creation Nation. I have not seen anything like it before so I ordered it that day.
What follows is my experience when I used Creation Nation’s mix to make my very own protein bars for the first time. Although I can’t take all the credit since I didn’t gather the ingredients, I did technically make them!
I hope you have as much fun reading my Creation Nation whey protein bar mix review as I did making them and writing this.
About Creation Nation
I never heard of Creation Nation until I came across their protein bar mix however, according to their website, they have been around since 2014.
According to the founder of the company, Karen Nation, she was tired of the usual expensive protein bars filled with artificial garbage and decided to make her own bars.
After realizing that people loved the bars she was making, Karen decided to create a protein bar mix that allowed others to experience the joy of creating their own bars as well.
Creation Nation currently produces a few different types of protein bar and energy ball mixes. All of their products contain high-quality, non-gmo ingredients. Many of their ingredients are also organic. Their bars are no-bake, meaning you do not have to heat or cook anything to make them.
As far as their protein bar mixes, they currently have three different flavors being vegan PB & Jelly get in my belly, whey hip chocolate chip and vegan peas love and cocoa. I love the names they use for their mixes. If there is one area the protein bar industry is lacking in, it is definitely coming up with cool names for their bars.
Whey hip chocolate chip
As my preferred type of protein at the current time is whey, I chose to go with the whey hip chocolate chip flavor when I ordered my Creation Nation bar mix. I was delighted to find that they used grass-fed whey protein in these bars.
Aside from the whey protein, I picked these bars because they are Keto certified and free of grains, gluten, and soy. It’s pretty hard to find a Keto friendly protein bar on the market right now so these really had me jumping for joy. There’s only 3 grams of sugar and 9 grams of carbohydrates in the mix.
Although I was in a rush to try these, I had to wait until I had enough time to make these without rushing. After waiting about a week, the day finally arrived.
As this is something I actually made, I of course took pictures for you guys so you can see what the process really looked like. The bars look beautiful on the packaging but do they really come out like that?
Just so you understand what goes into making these bars, I’ll break it down step by step so you will know exactly what to expect if you decide to try them.
Step # 1- Decide on your ingredients
There are technically three steps on the back of the mix but I’m adding this step in. Although the bag contains nearly every ingredient you need, there is a little chart on back telling you the three options you have to sweeten your bars. You have to choose one of the options to make them so you will need to add a few ingredients of your own for these.
There is an option to make the bars sweet where you add your own natural ingredients like honey and apple juice. There is another option to make them “original”, with the same type of ingredients and there is a third option to make them less sweet.
I chose the original option for these bars because I didn’t want them to be too sweet. I used water for the needed liquid, two tablespoons of maple syrup and 1/3 cup of peanut butter.
Step # 2- Pour into a bowl
This is pretty self-explanatory but you pour the contents of the bar mix into a large mixing bowl along with the ingredients you choose to add.
Step # 3-Mix together
Also self-explanatory but it just goes to show how simple these bars are to make! You mix all the ingredients together using a fork. Even though it was a bit sticky, this was very easy to do and it took me less than a minute to accomplish.
Step # 4-Press mixture into sealable container and cut/roll
This is the final step. I used a glass container to put my bars into but you can really use anything that is sealable. Just make sure to spread the mixture evenly so your bars all come out the same size.
At this point, you also have to decide if you are going to make balls or bars. I chose to make bars. If you are going to make protein balls, you would roll the mixture into balls at this point.
Although it says you can cut the bars at this step, I found that it was still very sticky so I chose to cover the container and put it into the fridge for a few hours to allow it to harden up without cutting them.
According to the package, the mixture is to be stored and chilled in an airtight container. If done so, the bars should last about two weeks.
How did they come out?
After a few hours in the fridge, they were ready to eat. It may have been because I used peanut butter, but they were just a little sticky to cut and separate, which really didn’t bother me. If you are looking for very firm bars, you may want to avoid using nut butter or maple syrup. That being said, they did come out looking like the picture on the package!
These bars honestly tasted amazing. I would’ve never believed that they were as low-carb and healthy had I not known the ingredients prior to eating them.
The taste and texture reminded me of Quaker Chewy bars. I love coconut and chocolate so these bars really hit the spot for me.
These were actually so good and went so fast that I completely forgot to take a picture of them after they sat in the fridge for a bit. Once I started eating them, I really couldn’t stop. I think they lasted about two days in my house.
Price
I ordered my mix on Amazon and paid $14.99 (as of 04/15/2019 11:14 EST-Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product) . I have Amazon Prime, so I get free shipping.
They are currently $11.99 on Creation Nation’s website. If you have Amazon Prime, that will likely be the cheaper option for you to get these although Creation Nation has free shipping on orders over $40.00.
One bag of the mix makes 8 bars so that’s less than two dollars a bar when you do the math. That’s a very fair price in my opinion. Particularly, when you consider the quality of ingredients that are used in them.
Protein bar making made easy
I can officially say that I’ve made my own protein bars at home thanks to Creation Nation’s whey hip chocolate chip protein bar mix. These were really fun to make and I will definitely be ordering them again. Most likely many times.
If you are like me and want to try making your own protein bars, I think that this is a great first step. They have done the hard work of putting all of the ingredients together for you so you just get to do the fun stuff.
This is one of the coolest products that I think has hit the market in recent years. What’s great with Creation Nation mixes is that they are customizable so you can make all kinds of different recipes with them.
I highly recommend these to anyone who is into protein bars and is a control freak like me, that is very particular about what they put into their body.
I would love to hear your thoughts and questions about this product below. Also, if you have ever made your own protein bars I would love to hear your comments about that as well!
Thanks for reading,
Dan
Hi! Thanks for taking the time to document making these treats for us. I think making these truly fit your macros is choosing the right ingredients to add. These seem like they would be even more keto-friendly by substituting the maple syrup for another type of sweetener. It’s VERY difficult to find protein bars without a ton of sugar and carbs, so Creation Nation might have the edge on this market. I’ll definitely be trying these – would love to see your reviews on the other flavors, too.
Hi Angela,
You’re welcome. For sure it would be but I was being lazy and didn’t want to run out to the store to get more ingredients LOL. It definitely is very hard which is why these are so exciting. You can truly make them your own and I think the amount of things you can do with these are endless. I will definitely be trying the other flavors in the future so keep an eye out for a review of those:) Thanks for your comment!
Wow, these whey protein bars look delicious. I’ve never heard of Creation Nation, but this looks like a great brand. Price isn’t bad either.
I like how fast these were done, sometimes it has been a pain to prepare this things, and it just takes too long.
Thanks for the review, this was helpful!
Hi Jacob,
They were very delicious. For sure it is. These were very easy to make and were fun to make as well. I definitely recommend them. Thanks for your comment!
I love home made products and I couldn’t imagine how I could make my own protein bars. All my experiments ended up in a total disaster! Your article saved my kitchen from another mess! One question if you don’t mind: what do the mixes contain? I mean, are there any “suspect”ingredients? Thank you !
Hi Effie,
I feel that it would sadly end the same for me so that’s why I thought this mix would be a great first option. There are no suspect ingredients at all! Here are the ingredients: WHEY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE (GRASS-FED, RBST FREE), ORGANIC DRIED COCONUT, ALMONDS, ORGANIC BRAZIL NUT POWDER, ORGANIC FLAXSEED MEAL, SEMI-SWEET CHOCOLATE CHIPS, (ORGANIC CANE SUGAR, UNSWEETENED CHOCOLATE, COCOA BUTTER), ORGANIC VANILLA FLAVOR, SEA SALT, MONK FRUIT. CONTAINS: MILK, TREE NUTS. No funny stuff here. Thanks for your comment!
Excellent article, and very feasible recipe indeed.
I will be trying this over the weekend!
Thanks Andrea!