Hi friends!

Are always on-the go, really into your health, or do you have a major sweet tooth? Or if you’re anything like me, all of the above? If so, I get it! It can be so challenging to juggle a jam-packed schedule AND make healthy decisions at the same time. That’s one of my biggest problems. Because of how much time I spend at school at work, I end up picking up convenient snacks over healthy snacks. Another one of my major problems is that I struggle to curb my sweet tooth while eating a healthy, balanced diet. Curse you, ice cream, for being so creamy and delicious…

But have no fear – energy bites are the “cure” to BOTH of these problems. After you’ve prepped a batch for the week, which takes hardly any time at all, they’re quick and easy for us on-the-go gals and they’re a healthier (but still tasty!) alternative to a lot of store bought, pre-packaged sweets. Not only are they quick and healthy, but they’recustomizable and versatile. YOU are in control of what flavors you make, how sweet they are, if they’re vegan or gluten free and so much more!

I’ve seen hundreds of variations of these little spheres of heaven, and I bet you have too! So rather than giving you a recipe, I’m going to also share with you the basics of how to make up your own energy bites without a recipe.

There are four parts to making these yummy little treats – a base, the “glue”, sweetener and your flavors/toppings. As I said before, these are completely customizable to you. You can have as few or as many ingredients in your masterpiece as you wish. If you only want a base, somethin’ sticky and a topping, that’s totally fine! If you want 5 different toppings, that’s also perfect too! The more you make these, the more you’ll get used to the proportions of ingredients.

The base is going to be the main ingredient. It’s going to give your energy bites a denser, heartier texture. In most cases, you’ll have more of your base than any other component. Some common bases in snack bites are oats, oat flour, oat bran, ground nuts (usually almonds or cashews), seeds, almond or flax meal and coconut.

The “glue” is what helps hold all of the other ingredients together. Typically, you’ll use the same amount of “glue” as you do for the base, or less! It depends on how many other ingredients you have in your energy bites! Sometimes, these sticky substances can serve as both the “glue” and the sweetener! You can use different nut or seed butters, honey, pumpkin puree, coconut oil, mashed banana or even mashed sweet potato as the glue for your energy bites!

Finally, my favorite part – the flavors and toppings! This is where you can really make your energy bites speak to your taste buds. You can add no flavors or toppings, or tons. Just remember that you may have to adjust how much base and “glue” you use so that everything stays together. The possibilities are endless here. For flavors and toppings, you can use pumpkin seeds or other seeds, pumpkin puree, chocolate chips, coconut, raisins and other smaller dried fruit, cocoa powder, slivered almonds and other chopped nuts, and spices like cinnamon.

Now that you have all of the components of how to make your own energy bites, get out there and try making some of your own and get creative with it!

Here’s one of my favorites:

Chocolate Chip Flax Seed Bites

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ c. oats
• 1 c. nut butter
• ¼ c. honey
• ⅓ c. coconut flakes
• ⅓ c. dark chocolate chips
• ¼ c. pumpkin seeds (raw or toasted)
• ¼ c. ground flax seed

Measure out oats, nut butter, honey, coconut flakes, chocolate chips, pumpkin seeds and flax seed in a bowl. Add in your nut butter or other sticky substance.

Thoroughly combine all ingredients until mixture is even throughout.

Take small sections of the mix and roll into small balls. It may be a little tough with sticky hands so I pressed mine into balls more than I actually rolled them. Place on a sheet of wax paper and freeze for about 30 minutes.

See, you guys! It’s fairly quick and simple and they’re super yummy. They’re almost like a ball form of a granola bar. I don’t know about you, but I like knowing what ingredients went into my food so I think this is much better than pre-packaged, store bought granola bars!

Let me know what kind of snack bites you guys come up with!

Naturally,

Ari.