Energy Bites!

[craftylittlemonkey]

These are actually quite tasty and nutritious. You can substitute the nuts for seeds to make them safe-for-school and there are tons of other variations possible.


I started with this recipe and made some changes. We had some dried cherries, apricots and figs to use up so substituted those for some of the dates. There were walnuts, pecans, almonds, sunflower seeds, poppy seeds, and chia in the freezer that got mixed together. I added cinnamon because the man likes it. He finds apricots a bit tart so I also tossed in some maple flakes for extra sweetness. I used unsweetened cocoa powder along with some semi-sweet chocolate chips.

The last batch I made was rolled into balls and then shredded coconut or cocoa powder to keep the outside from being too sticky. Those lasted about 2 days so I tripled the ingredients this time and instead of standing around making little circles for hours, it was pressed into a parchment lined baking sheet and put into the freezer to firm up. I really pressed it in hard to compress everything and get it as firm as possible.


When it was frozen, I set it on the counter to soften up just a bit then cut it into portions with a heavy cleaver. Those got layered between parchment in some air tight containers, one is in the fridge and the other in the freezer.


They don't last, people snack on them every day. I don't mind a bit, that's a terrifically healthy, protein rich snack with natural sweetness. I do recommend increasing water intake when eating dried foods though. And of course moderation, no more than 3-4 per day.  Next time I will either leave the chia seeds out or grind them first (I'd do the same if using flax seeds). They are not bad, nicely crunchy tiny little circles, but they get stuck in the teeth and it's uncomfortable.

[TheMistressT]

Oooo!

[rackycoo]

Congrats! This has been chosen as a Featured Project! 

[lindyv321]

I love this idea even more than the balls! Thanks for sharing