Chocolate Chia & Cinnamon Vanilla Protein Bites

I'll be honest, I made this recipe once and they were SO good that Ryan said we should make 50 of them.  We didn't do that, but the second time around we made a double-dose of these bad boys and I'm not mad about it.  If you're anything like me, you need (or want) a little sweet bite after dinner.  I don't like to have too many sweets around though, so these bites are perfect.  First, they really aren't that bad for you because they have a nut-butter and oat base.  Second, since they're bite-sized, it's easy to self-regulate.  If you're the kind of person that has trouble limiting yourself when it comes to dessert (no judgment here, I'm totally the same way), these are great.  

You can make pretty much any kind of protein bite - the essential ingredients are the same honey, oats, and nut butter.  Everything else is just additional yumminess.  The first time I made these, I added fresh blueberries because that's what I had, but it made them hard to roll, so I recommend using dried fruits or "hard" ingredients so you can roll them without being concerned about squishing or ruining the ingredients.

The chocolate chia bites were great, but I have to say, the vanilla almond butter we used in the cinnamon vanilla bites made them AMAZING!  Tangent here - Justin's vanilla almond butter is the bomb.  Naturally, since I'm studying nutrition, I've been paying a lot more attention to the labels on the foods I'm eating.  Believe it or not, even though the vanilla almond butter is sweet, it has fewer calories than the original almond butter.  Why?  I'm guessing it's because the vanilla flavor makes the almond butter taste great without other additives, which they may use in the original almond butter.  Now that I know a little more about nutrition, it's really interesting to read and compare food labels.

Total time: 45-55 minutes

Servings: 12-15 bites

Chocolate Chia Ingredients:

1 cup oats

1/4 cup peanut or almond butter

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup sliced almonds

2 tbs chocolate & chia flax seed mix (or 1 tbs chia seeds, 1 tbs cocoa powder)

1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cinnamon Vanilla Ingredients:

1 cup oats

1/4 cup peanut or almond butter*

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup sliced almonds

1 tbs cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp vanilla extract*

*since I used Justin’s vanilla almond butter, I skipped the vanilla extract

Instructions:

1. Add all ingredients to a medium bowl and mix until thoroughly combined.
2. Refrigerate the mix for 30-40 minutes.
3. Scoop into even pieces and roll into balls.  You can add more nut butter if they are not sticking together properly.

Store in the refrigerator.

How good do those look?  And you're getting great fiber from the oats and protein from the nut butter, so in terms of desserts, it's definitely not a bad choice.  These bites are really 2-bite sized, which I find is the perfect after-dinner treat!

This was from the first batch, which still turned out well, but the 2nd time around I was able to perfect the recipe.

Enjoy!