Peanut Butter Oat Energy Balls
I always have homemade and nutritious snacks on hand. Having simple homemade snacks prepped helps cut out heavily processed foods, minimize sugar intake, saves you money and can even help you snack more mindfully.
Oat energy balls are one of my go to homemade snacks. They only require a few ingredients and they are a great way to get in lots of fiber. What I love most about these balls is that they require no baking and they are nearly impossible to mess up.
This recipe calls for dates as the main sweetener. This also helps hold the balls together. I used less dates than I typically use in oat energy balls to cut down on the sugar quantity in these and I think after trying them you will agree that they don’t need as much sugar after all. My suggestion is to soak your dates before hand for about 1-2 hours. This will soften the dates and help them become a spread more easily. After soaking DO NOT throw away the water. You will be using the reserved date water in the recipe to help keep the balls from becoming a crumbling mess.
makes 15 balls
What you need:
2 cups oats
3 large medjool dates pitted and soaked (see tip above)
4 tbsp reserved date water (see tip above)
3/4 cup peanut butter unsweetened
A pinch of salt
2 tbsp chia seeds
2 tbsp flax meal
1 tsp vanilla extract
Directions: Place the pitted soaked dates in a large bowl and mash with a fork until smooth. Add the remaining ingredients and mix until well combined. Then begin scooping out about 2 tbsp of batter and form into balls by squeezing in your hand. These will be hard to roll so squeezing them into balls in your palm works best. They shouldn’t crumble once formed. If they do just add another tbsp of water. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week or in the freezer for longer. Enjoy.