I was at Walmart the other day when I had an idea. What if I buy ingredients from here and make a delicious, healthy and vegan treat?! One of the reasons I started this blog was to show people that eating healthier or vegan doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive. I figured this was the perfect opportunity to put my baking skills to the test. To be honest, I don’t shop at Walmart too often because it’s not convenient for me and I assume they don’t have the items I need. I walked down the baking isle and was pleasantly surprised to find out that they had an amazing vegan baking selection! They even had items I had been looking for for awhile and at reasonable prices!

While I didn’t use them in this recipe, I couldn’t help but get some vegan marshmallows at only $4.58. The few times I’ve seen vegan marshmallows, they’ve been almost $10 for a small bag! I was lucky to shop at a Super Walmart so I’m not sure if they’ll have all the same items at your own local Walmart but I would definitely check them out and see what they do have. At the Walmart I was at, they also had vegan butter, vegan yogurt and vegan chocolate. I had been to this Walmart about a year ago and noticed that they didn’t have any of these items so I was pleasantly surprised to see the wide selection!

I thought it would also be helpful to share prices of the items I bought on this post (something I normally don’t do) so you can see that eating healthy and vegan doesn’t have to break the bank. Initially, it may seem like a lot of money but you’ll be able to use these items for a long time and overall it will save you a lot of money. It was about $5.22 to make this recipe (not including pricing for salt, cinnamon and vanilla extract) with the plant protein and chocolate chips accounting for half of the price.

Ingredients

Powdered peanut butter – Powdered peanut butter contains less fat than regular peanut butter and is a great way to get in protein without adding a bunch of fat and calories. The powdered peanut butter at Walmart, PBFit, comes in a 24oz jar and was only $12.96. I love adding this to smoothies and oatmeal as well.

Almond milk – There were a few brands of almond milk at my Walmart store. I didn’t end up buying any this time since I already had some at home but it’s about $2-3 depending on what brand you buy. I would recommend buying a brand that fortifies their almond milk with calcium. To check, look at the back nutritional panel.

Stevia – This is a zero calorie sweetener that replaces sugar. The 19.4oz bag was only $9.33 and it’s a BIG bag. If you’re not going to use that much stevia, you could also buy the smaller 9.7oz bag that’s only $5.97. You could also use a different zero calorie sweetener like monk fruit but this is what Walmart had on hand.

Plant protein – This is one ingredient that I was incredibly surprised by. I was looking for a protein source to bulk up the protein in this recipe and was shocked at how many different options they had! I choose to go with this one because it was unflavored, gluten-free and didn’t have a lot of carbs. I’ve noticed that a lot of plant protein powders contain a decent amount of carbs and I wanted to keep it low so that there was a lot of protein in this recipe. This 12.7oz bag was only $12.96 and has 17 servings.

Rolled oats – This was another ingredient I already had on hand so I didn’t need to buy it but you can buy it for only $3.98 for a 42oz tub.

Chocolate chips – Along with the plant protein, this ingredient was the other surprise find of my trip. They had vegan chocolate chips! I always look for a vegan version from Toll House when I’m at other stores without luck but here they were! Apparently, they came out with them about 4 years ago, so I may be behind the times but they are significantly cheaper than the other brand I had been buying. I opted for the dark chocolate chips and they were $4.48 for a 9oz bag.

Cinnamon, salt & vanilla extract – If you bake or cook at all, you probably already have these in your pantry, however, if you don’t, you can get a great price at Walmart. Vanilla extract tends to be a little expensive so if you really need to save money, you could always opt for the imitation vanilla flavor which is significantly cheaper.

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a mini cupcake tin or use mini cupcake liners.
2. In a medium bowl, mix the powdered peanut butter and water together until all the clumps are gone.
3. Add in the stevia and mix until combined. Add almond milk and vanilla and stir.
4. Add in the remaining ingredients, except chocolate chips, and mix to combine.
5. The dough should be pretty dry but still hold it’s shape. If it’s too dry, add more almond milk or water.
6. Add in the chocolate chips and stir.
7. Add dough to mini cupcake tin until all the dough is gone. The dough won’t rise, so you don’t need to leave any space for the dough to rise.
8. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
9. Cool on wire rack and enjoy!

Storing Instructions

Store cups in an air tight container on the counter or up to 5 days in the fridge.