Kid Friendly Energy Balls

This is the After School Snack that I am most excited about for this week.  I am excited about energy balls for two reasons 1) because they are so delicious and nutritious and 2) because they are getting my kids to eat things they would gladly tell you they hate!  Victory is mine….  (I am doing a little victory dance by the way – well more of an upper body wiggle as I am sat on the sofa with a laptop perched on my knee, but still I am happy).

Nutrition

Anyhoo… Energy Balls – they are so good the kids will be lucky if there are any left for after school snack, but if there are any then they will be getting protein, fibre, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and omega 3 fatty acids just to name a few of the goodies that hide within these delicious energy balls. I am not a nutritionist so the quantities etc… are done purely by taste and not nutritional value.  I don’t pretend to be giving nutritional advice as I am simply not qualified, but there is stuff that is good for you in these!

There are loads of recipes for Energy Balls available, but a lot of the ones I make for my husband and I are just too strong in flavour or too tricky a texture for little kids.  They also often tend to contain protein powder and I don’t feel that this is necessary for the littles. So I went ahead and made up my own recipe using some flavours they are familiar with, some they hate and some that are a bit more alien to them.

WARNING – This recipe contains nuts so is not suitable for lots of school playgrounds.  My kids school is nut free so I will be giving them a piece of fruit when I get there and we will be yumming these down once we are clear of the school grounds.

You will need:

4 tbsp Cashew Nut Butter

4 tbsps Unsweetened Cocoa Powder (you can also use cacao, but half the quantity as it is stronger in taste)

2 tbsps Dessicated Coconut (More if you want to coat the outside of the energy balls)

2 tbsps Raisins or other dried fruit

4 tbsps Rolled Oats

8 dates (medjool fresh dates work best as they are juicy and plump, but I have made it with dried and it still worked)

2 tsp of Chia Seeds

The How:

1. Put all the ingredients into a blender and blend until combined.  I make sure it is almost smooth, but it does tend to still have a little texture to make it an interesting bite
2. Divide and roll into balls. I make these into half the size of the adult ones so this amount of ingredients makes around 30.  You could make them bigger, but for my littles I find that it is quantity of snack that is important.  They would rather have several small things than one big thing…
3. Roll in desiccated coconut to coat the outside if you wish (I love this and think it tastes great, but the littles don’t love coconut so they prefer to not have it on)                                                           
4. Put them in an airtight container in the fridge and try not to eat them all before snack time

If you like this check out 4 other great after school snack ideas here: