Thursday, March 19, 2015

Energy Bites: Healthy & Delicious (For Real!)


I don't know if you have made energy bites of some sort, but I have become a fan of these yummy and healthy snacks.   A while back, my friend Connie gave me a few of these she had made to sample.  After I had one, I immediately texted her, "YUM! I tried them and I need the recipe!"  Then, a few weeks ago it was my snack-bringing week for church and I felt the need to make something a little more substantially nutritious than the biscuits and coffee cake I had made the previous months.  I looked on my Pinterest breakfast board and found this recipe that was pretty much Connie's recipe but with peanut butter instead of almond butter. I had forgotten about the recipe! 

I made a double batch- which yielded 40 something balls.  They were all gone within a few minutes of serving them.  I don't know if people were desperately hungry or they really liked them.  We have lots of kids that congregate around our snack table at church, so I think we can call these delicious when kids and adults ate them, and we can call them healthy since they are chock full of flax seed, chia and oats! 

I made them again for my family this week and we have enjoyed having them for a quick snack or for a breakfast on the go.  I even had one for dessert the other night (though my son believes that despite that fact that they are laced with chocolate chips, they do not qualify for dessert) !

I'm trying to have things on hand that are protein-rich, as my kids tend to reach for crackers, chips, and starches for snacks.  Lately, I've made Hummus and Texas Caviar to have in the refrigerator and try to always keep yogurt and smoothie-making supplies on hand.  If I get my act together to have the good stuff within reach, and prep a couple of things for the week, they have good, tasty, healthy things within reach.  

 

Energy Bites
Makes about 20

1 cup (dry) old fashioned oatmeal
2/3 cup coconut flakes
½ cup peanut butter (or almond butter- take your pick)
½ cup ground flaxseed
½ cup mini chocolate chips
1/3 cup honey
1 Tbsp. chia seeds
1 tsp. vanilla extract


Stir all ingredients together in a bowl.  Let set in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.  
Form into small balls (about golf ball size).  
Put in an air tight container and keep in refrigerator. 











If this inspires you to get into healthy oatey bar/bite making, I have two granola bar recipes I love that I wrote about HERE and HERE and my favorite go-to granola recipe HERE, oh and the lovely chewy peanut butter granola HERE.  If you are short on time, these simple but nutritionally dense bites are super easy and quick to put together.  


5 comments:

  1. trying out my new comment settings

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  2. i made these and they are so so good! perfect little snack-size bite too!

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  3. Hi Julie! This is Erica Merker (Valentino when I was at Grace!) I just love your blog :) I think Susanna sent it to me years ago and we've both been making recipes of yours ever since! So- thank you!!! I think you and I might be food twins... there have been times I thought, "let's make breakfast for dinner" and then you post about it, or I think, "I want to make muffins today!" and suddenly a muffin recipe appears on your blog! I was actually biting into an energy bite I had just made when I read this post :) Somehow you can read my food-mind... or maybe it's just that I think about food and cooking too much! :) I've tried playing around with energy bites a bit... so far my favorite is really similar to this recipe, but to pulse some or all of the oats in a food processor or blender first to make them into an oat flour, and add a tablespoon or two of coconut oil- it makes them very cookie-dough- ish! Anyway- instead of just reading, I thought I'd become a commenter! Hope you are well!!!

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  4. These are my go-to treat for new moms to snack on whenever I take a meal, and they're always a hit!

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