We have had an exceptionally healthy winter here at House Macheesmo. Somehow, last week we had our very first sick day during the week where one kid had to stay home from school. You can only watch so many episodes of Daniel Tiger so my 2-year old and I hopped in the kitchen to stir together these No Bake Peanut Butter Energy Balls!
Okay, I did all of the stirring and just let Darby take “notes” on what I was doing.
It’s an easy recipe and you don’t even have to turn on the oven or plug in any mixers! Some recipes call for a food processor to make these, but that seems like more work than it’s worth to me.
Once you mix up a batch of these energy balls (or energy bites), they store great in the fridge and are perfect for afternoon kid snacks. Or, if your me, an afternoon pick-me-up adult snack! The recipe makes about 30 energy balls and I think they barely lasted 24 hours in my fridge. Ha!
No Bake Peanut Butter Energy Balls
Ingredients
- 1 cup rolled oatmeal
- ½ cup almond flour, optional
- ¼ cup raisins
- ¼ cup chocolate chips
- ½ cup creamy peanut butter
- ¼ cup honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, stir together oatmeal, almond flour, raisins, and chocolate chips.
- In a small microwave safe bowl, microwave peanut butter, honey, and vanilla for 20 seconds on high. Then stir together well.
- Pour peanut butter mixture into the oatmeal mixture and stir together until it forms a stiff mixture. You should be able to knead it with your hands, but not really stir it.
- Using your clean hands, roll tablespoon-sized balls of the mixture and place them on wax paper. Repeat until you use all the mixture. You should get about 30.
- You can eat the energy balls right away, but they are best if you let them chill for an hour or so. Store leftovers in the fridge for up to a week.
Nutrition
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How to Make Energy Balls
Oatmeal is the base for these energy balls, but I also added some almond flour to mine to give it a little more flavor and a lighter texture. You could just use oatmeal if you want though.
I also used a mix of raisins and chocolate. You could use all of one or the other if you wanted, but I really liked the mix.
For the binder/glue of these energy balls, microwave the peanut butter, honey, and vanilla together for 15-20 seconds. You just want to be able to stir it all together and heat it up slightly to make mixing easier.
Then everything goes in one bowl!
Stir this well and you’ll end up with a really firm mixture. Some of the chocolate kind of melts as you mix it which I liked. Makes for a more even chocolate flavor throughout and you get the occasional chocolate chip still.
Quick recipe break to check in on Darby. She was taking great notes on my progress.
Even when sick, she’s smiling!
I rolled out my peanut butter energy balls into about tablespoon-sized balls. Honestly you can eat them right away.
But, they are definitely better if you chill them for about an hour or so and they keep great in the fridge for at least a week, probably longer, but they won’t last that long if you have kids snagging them out of the fridge!
Here are a few other great kid snacks:
- Candied Bacon Chex Mix
- Fruit Confetti Popsicles
- After School Protein Bars
- Apple Fruit Donuts from Hello Beautiful
Dawn Alexopoulos
Sounds delicious and easy to put together. Your helper is adorable!!