Protein Bites Galore

      I wanted to share some new recipes that have become a fav go to snack at our house. Because of my Husbands health and just in general benefit of our family we have been trying to eat only unprocessed foods, or foods with-out preservatives. Which means that any prepackaged snacks are out. Gone are the granola bars, goldfish, and to my Katy-Kat's dismay her beloved cheez-its.
   I have found a fun recipe and made homemade cheez-its, they were tasty. But our new fav snack around here seems to be protein/cookie bites. I found and altered one recipe and then because my oldest has decided he doesn't like pb I looked for and found several others. So here are all of the ones we have tried so far, they are all awesome, kid approved, picky husband approved, and chock full of good for you stuff.

  First we have our basic protein bites recipe, the original recipe before I altered it is found here at Gimme Some Oven.

 Protein Bites

Ingred;
3c. old fashioned rolled oats
1c. unsweetened finely shredded coconut
1/2c. ground flax seed
1/2c. oat or wheat bran
1/2c. mini choc. chips
1/2t. salt
                                   1/4c. choc. protein powder
                                     1/4c. chia seeds
                                     1/2c. agave
                                     2-1/4c. peanut butter
                                     1/4c. coconut butter

        I mix all of the dry ingred. in a large bowl, then heat the agave, pb and coconut butter in a glass bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds to 1min. until it's warm and easily mixes together. Mix well. Pour it over the dry ingred. and mix together, I find after a bit of mixing that it works best to use your hands, they are going to get messy anyways :)
Form into balls and store in an airtight container. These are ready to eat right away but after a day in the fridge are AMAZING  :)
This recipe makes approximately 50-60 bites.

Second up are the ones I make for my oldest, my sweet son, who will eat whatever I give him with a smile but then later informs me that it was fine but he didn't care for it. His list of likes are getting shorter and shorter, it is really hard to find snacks that he likes so these next 3 recipes are ones I like to have on hand so that I know there is a snack around here that he will eat. The original recipe that I altered is here- A Dash of Compassion,  Natural Vegan baking with Love. 

Kegan's Cookie Bites 

Ingred:
2/3c. almonds, blanched or unblanched raw unsalted
2/3c. walnuts
2/3c. old fashioned raw oats
1/4c. ground flax
1/4t. salt
1/2t. cinnamon
1/4c. chia seeds
1/4c. agave
1/4c. coconut butter (here is a link to make your own if you can't find it), melted. 
1/3c. mini choc. chips

In a food processor blend the almonds, walnuts, and oats until it looks like flour. Add in the flax, salt, cinnamon, agave and coconut butter.  Blend until well mixed, dump into a bowl and with your hands mix in the chia seeds and the choc chips.  Form into balls and store in an airtight in the fridge.


This recipe makes aprox. 40 bites.









        


      This next recipe is in honor of my Grampa, his favorite cake was German Chocolate Cake. So this one makes me think of him. I found the original recipe on Chocolate Covered Katies Blog, if you haven't been over there boy howdy are you missing out. The pictures alone are worth the trip :)

                         Grampa's German Chocolate Bites

Ingred;
1/2c. pitted prunes
1/2t. vanilla
1/16t. salt
1/2c. pecans
2T. unsweetened finely shredded coconut
2T. choc. protein powder
2T. cocoa powder
1T. chia seeds
1/4c. mini choc. chips

In a food processor blend together the prunes, vanilla and salt, when that has become sort of a paste add into your food processor the pecans, coconut, protein powder and cocoa powder. Blend until it all comes together as a dough, dump into a bowl and with your hands work in the chia seeds and choc chips. Form into balls and store in the fridge.

This recipe makes approx 20 bites
(better double it :) 






         This next recipe is so good, just like eating choc chip cookie dough, love it. The first time I made it I followed the recipe to a T, it's found here at- Averie Cooks. It was a little sweet for us so I did a little bit of revising and here is what I came up with.

Raw Vegan Cookie Dough Bites

Ingred;
 1c. raw unsalted cashews 
1/3c. old fashioned rolled oats
2T. agave (going to try only 1 next time)
1t. vanilla extract
1T, vanilla protein powder (or could use powdered milk)
1/8c. mini choc chips

Place the cashews into the food processor and blend until like flour, then add in the oats and blend until it's powdery again. Add in the agave, vanilla, and protein powder. Blend until it forms a dough, dump into a bowl and work in the choc chips. Form into balls and store in the fridge.

This recipe makes aprox 10-12 bites, and I have to tell you my first batch never made it to the fridge. They were snatched up by children and spouse before they even made it into a container :)

All of these taste even better after they have been refrigerated for awhile, like overnight,  it lets everything mesh together better.


        There are a couple more recipes for protein bars that I am working on turning into bites, one with quinoa for my dad. I will be doing those later this summer. A quick shout out to my Sister-in-Law Kristy, I found out recently that she is a fan of my blog. She is super sweet and it was awesome to see her at the reunion a couple weeks ago, hugs girl.

Happy 4th All, I hope you have a Wonderful Independence Day!!!