Peanut Butter Protein Balls

My wife Mandy likes to scrapbook, and holds these scrapbooking retreats periodically.  When she returned from this last one, she was singing the praises of her new friend Monika, who was a fellow marathoner.  Monika was quite the cool person.

Another thing was that Monika had a recipe for protein balls, which Mandy described as like protein bars, but all natural and homemade.  She talked so much about how good they were that I was a bit skeptical.

Until she made them.

Seriously, these things are great.  They taste AWESOME.  Very good for use when you would normally snarf a protein bar – as a hunger fix, to add protein while regularly working out, whatever.  And since you control all the ingredients, you can control the calories, protein, taste, etc.  Monika is also very into something called clean eating, which I know absolutely zilch about.  I thought it meant showering and washing your hands before you ate.  Which I sometimes even do.

So, here is the recipe as Monika originally emailed to my wife, including her comments:

Peanut Butter Protein Balls

• 2 cups oats
• 16 oz nut butter (peanut butter seems to be our favorite but all should work.  try to stick with natural and no extra added sugars)
• 2 bars or 1 bag of chocolate (if you want to stick to clean eating go for something with at LEAST 70% chocolate)
• 2 cups honey or agave (agave is clean, but honey is cheaper. your call)
• 4-6 scoops of protein powder (I use EAS chocolate, but all should work. I do 6, but only because we workout a lot. if you dont, I would lean toward 4)

Add all to a standing mixer (if you do not have a standing mixer, i would add 1/4 cup more peanut butter and 1/4 cup honey to thin it out) and blend for about 10 full minutes. You will need to watch because depending on the type of oats you have, you may need to add more honey/agave.  It should be the consistency of cookie dough, so just use your best judgement.

Once thoroughly combined, use a small cookie scoop or a spoon and scoop out 1-2 Tbls of mixture and roll into a small ball.  I set these into a large tupperware container and then leave them in the fridge for roughly two weeks (we eat them to fast, but they should last longer too), but they also freeze fantastically.

However, they do NOT need to be refrigerated.

This recipe makes about 48 balls and a serving is 2 balls.

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