Protein Energy Balls

Speaker: 00:05

In this episode, I bring you the No Bake Protein Energy Balls. Welcome to Bite Me, the show about edibles where I help you take control of your high life. I'm your host, Marge, and I just want to say thank you for being here. I'm so excited to get into this episode this week, and I'm glad we're all here together. It just makes me so happy. So, before I get into this week's episode, I just wanted to give a big shout out to Rasher. He bought me some cookies via the Buy Me a Cookie platform. Thank you so much for supporting me in this way. There are some costs to running a show like this, and it's been self-funded for the last two and a half years, but I love doing it. But getting some validation from you folks out there when you're doing something like that, like buying a cookie on the Buy Me a Cookie platform, really means a lot to me, and I appreciate it. So thank you, thank you, thank you. 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I notice them and I appreciate it, and I appreciate you. So this week we're going to get into a no-bake protein energy ball. I was trying to focus on a couple more healthier recipes for the end of this month. I guess we're getting into February now, but hopefully, if you've made some New Year's resolutions or some pledges to yourself to try and eat better, I can help you out with that by at least providing some recipes that are going to be on the healthier side. I know I have a pretty dangerous sweet tooth myself. Maybe some of you out there do as well. And edibles do, you know, when people think of edibles, they think of the classic pot brownie or cookie or what have you. But if you've been listening to the show for any length of time, you know how versatile edibles can be and how many different things you can infuse with cannabis, which is pretty much almost anything. So if you have something that you really love, then you could probably make it infused. And these no-bake protein energy balls do fall into that category. Now I have to say I did have a small fail this uh recently when I was trying to make these because I had found a different uh protein bar recipe that I thought I was going to like, and I made it, but it didn't really turn out the way that I liked. It didn't turn out, it didn't turn out, it just didn't turn out, I guess, is what I'm saying. And so even though it's still in the fridge and I did cut up into small squares because I also realized I might have put a bit too much infusion in it, because if I'm using this as sort of an energy bar, I don't necessarily want, it's not the type of time for me when I want to get really high. But I do enjoy a small light or micro dose in those particular instances. But so they might have been a little strong for that particular purpose, so I had to make them cut them into smaller pieces. But at the same time, it made a whole tray and I just found they turned out a little bit too dry and too crumbly. And I've looked through and I'm not sure what it is that uh where things went wrong. It did call for chocolate chips in the recipe, which I left out because sometimes I feel when you're looking for an energy bar or something a little healthier, putting chocolate chips in it sort of makes it more candy-like as opposed to health-like. And so I left them out. Maybe that was my mistake, maybe and I didn't replace them with anything else. I'm not really sure. But sometimes things don't go the way you want them to. I mean, they tasted okay. I will eat them. Um, I can probably freeze them as well and eat them slowly over time. Lord knows I am running out of the fudges in my freezer right now, so I need to have something else in there. But I also found they didn't have a ton of flavor, and not that I'm not sure what kind of flavor I was looking for, but they were sort of bland, dry, and crumbly. So that's not the recipe I'm sharing with you folks today because that one just did not turn out the way I wanted. But of course, I will be in enjoying it or tolerating it maybe until it's all gone. I don't know. They're not that bad, but these no-bake protein energy balls were definitely more what I was looking for when I was looking for a recipe for recipe for this episode. And fortunately, it's a pretty short ingredient list. You most likely have something or most of these items on hand, and if not, they're easily acquired. And I sometimes like the energy ball format in a way better, anyway, because you put them in the fridge and they'll firm up, and then you can just pop them into like a Ziploc bag or two, or like some kind of takeout or you know, takeaway containers, whatever you have in your cupboard, and you can just throw them in your bag and have them when you're out and about, ready to hit the gym, or you're just trying to stave off hunger before dinner, or whatever the case might be, they can really come in handy. Now, what you do need for this recipe are rolled oats. You need some almond flour or almond meal. You can also substitute that for things like coconut flour or chickpea flour. And I do like that this particular recipe, the website that I pulled up from, which I'll link to in the show notes, did have some great um ways to tweak the recipe to make it your own. And as y'all know, I love substitutions. I love when you can get creative and change something up to make it your own. So I do appreciate when um when authors or bloggers or whatever the case might be uh include these types of substitutions or other ways you can um improve upon the original recipes so that it's more to your liking. Now, the other thing you're going to need are dates and they said uh pitted dates, of course, chopped, and uh three-quarters of a cup of nut butter. Now it could be pretty much any nut butter, really. And the what I ended up using is last time we went to the store, we ended up buying like a nut butter blend, so that's that's what it happens to be. But you'd peanut, almond, cashew butter, any of those soy butter, any of those things would work. You're gonna need water, chia seeds. I didn't have chia seeds, but I did have ground flax seeds, so I just used that. You could probably also use um flax seed as well if it wasn't ground. Uh, your vanilla protein powder says one scoop is about one tablespoon. Huh, I thought it seems like it's more than that, but maybe that depends on the brand that you're using. A tablespoon of coconut oil melted, and this is where you're going to be able to use your infused coconut oil, some vanilla, and a little bit of salt. Now, if you're not somebody that typically keeps whey protein powder on hand, you don't have to worry about going to the store and buying a huge tub of something that's going to sit in your cupboard for months. Because I can completely understand if you're not really buying it or using it on a regular basis. Why would you want to go out and spend some of this stuff gets expensive, like 30, 40, 50 bucks or more for actually you can spend a lot more than that on some of these protein powders. So don't feel like you need to do that. If you really would like to include the protein powder because you're looking to boost the protein in these in these energy balls, then a lot of places will sell like packets, like single-use packets of protein powder that you can look for in the stores. It might be a couple bucks, and that way you can still make the recipe, try it out, and you don't have to buy the the giant container that would last you forever if you're not using it on a regular basis anyway. But that's what I'd recommend. I like vanilla protein powder, but again, with this type of recipe and the flavors, chocolate might work pretty nice as well. And there's some protein powders, there's some pretty crazy flavors out there. So you can play around and experiment with that as well. You can maybe buy a couple packets of different flavors and see which ones you like the best. And essentially, this one's pretty simple. Now, it did suggest, and I did this as well because I have pitted majuled dates, but I I got them from Costco, and they after I asked my daughter that runs the vegan restaurant, because they use a ton of dates there, and she buys a different brand. And she did happen to tell me that the ones that I bought weren't as good, and she turned out to be correct on that, and I should have listened to her. But soak them for 10 minutes in warm water, and then that way you don't have to, they'll they'll be much softer and easier to work with. So if you have ones that are a little on the hard side or you just feel like they're not as soft as they could be, just soak them in water, warm water for 10 minutes. You could probably also use that same water for the two tablespoons that you're going to need. It's gonna be a little bit uh infused with the juice of the date as well, so that might add a little something extra to it. But you're going to put the oats in first. It does call for a food processor. I used a blender, and I'm gonna say that mine turned out pretty sticky, and I know why. So a blender for this might work, but you could also probably do it by hand if you don't have a food processor. Trying to get all the sticky shit out of the bottom of the blender when I was done because again, I made it a little maybe too um the batter, if you will, was pretty wet, and so it was hard to get out. And just with the base of the blender being more narrow, a food processor probably really does lend itself better. But you can use your your blender to pulse the rolled oats because that's the first thing you're going to do. And you're gonna just so that they're not um as coarse a texture, you're gonna break them up a little bit, and then you're going, and then next thing is your almond flour. Now, if you don't have almonds, but you do have, or sorry, if you don't have almond flour, but you do have almonds, then you just put your almonds in the blender and then you blend them until you have almond flour. It's pretty simple. You could do that with other things too, probably. But that's the easiest way. Don't feel like you have to run out and buy almond flour for this particular recipe if you have almonds in your cupboard. And I found I use I measured out like a half cup of almonds, and it made just a bit more uh little extra almond flour, too. So after that, you're going to put, if you're going to do this, I would recommend maybe putting the rolled oats, the pulsed rolled oats, and your almond flour in a bowl. Then you're going to add your dates with some water, and you're going to mix those together in your blender. And you're going to add those to the bowl along with all the other ingredients. And you're going to mix these by hand because I found that the blender just because it was having trouble mixing, I added a little bit extra water to it, and then I ended up with a really sticky mess. And I don't wish that, I don't wish that for you. I wish it to be a simple process. Again, if you have the food processor, the base is going to be a lot wider and it's going to be a lot easier. So if you're using a food processor, put in your rolled oats, um, blend or mix those or pulse those a couple of times. If you're then of course add your almonds as well. If you're having to uh make your almond flour, you can take the oats out, add the almonds, and then mix that so you can make your almond flour. I'm assuming that'll still work pretty well in a food processor. And then if you're using the food processor, you put everything else in the food processor and then mix it until it's ready to be scooped. But if you're not using a food processor and just working with the blender, I think you could easily do it in a bowl, and it's probably the preferred way to do it. If you have rubber gloves, sometimes that can help minimize mess, but it's also probably not necessary because they're going to turn out uh a bit drier than the when when I made them. Now, having said that, I was still able to roll them into uh reasonable size balls that are going to firm up in the fridge in an hour or so. Uh, what does it say? There is a note at the bottom. The mixture may appear crumbly. Once you start to form it together between your palms, it will come together to make a ball. If it's not working out, add a add more nut butter and a splash of water, blend again to desired until desired consistency is reached. So I didn't add more nut butter. I myself added a splash of water, but it like I said in the blender, it really turned out too wet. And I went the opposite way, and once you go that direction, it's really hard to fix it. So again, mixing it in the bowl would probably be easier. You just want to chop up those dates. And if you're making the almond flour, do that ahead of time and the rolled oats, or maybe you can just use oat flour you already have on hand. So that is my big tip for this one. But then you just roll them into balls. They suggest using a cookie scoop so that they do tend to be of uniform size, and that is a good idea. Um, mine were so damp that it made such a sticky mess that uh using a cookie scoop would actually probably not help at all because it was so so messy. But then you're going to just you can also drizzle it with melted chocolate on top if you want. They did show that in the picture. I didn't do that because again, sometimes I feel like if I'm making protein energy balls, I'm trying to stay away from the extra sugar if I can. And you're getting some sweetness with your dates. And most obviously vanilla protein powders have some kind of sugar in them, whether it's a you know a stevia or sugar substitute or something to that effect. So there is sweetness in these. You don't necessarily need to add the extra chocolate unless you unless you'd like to. They also suggest to roll the unsweet, roll an unsweetened shredded coconut, which I think would be quite nice. Uh, you could drizzle it with melted peanut butter. They said you could maybe add coarse coarse flakes of salt on it if you have some coarse salt, because sometimes a little extra salt is nice and it's good for minerals and electrolytes or what have you. Whatever suggestions. Um, the other suggestion as well is to use creamy nut butter for best results, I suppose, as opposed to a chunky or a crunchy nut butter. And that seems to make sense to me as well. And as somebody who typically just buys creamy stuff anyway, well, that was although I suppose it could work with the crunchy stuff, but they're saying for best results, the creamy works better. And finally, you can store store them in the fridge for about a week, or you can freeze them for up to two months. And the recipe made about 13 to 15 energy balls. I probably think I ended up with 13, although I did lose a little bit of the stuff because mine was so damn sticky. So if it's done properly, you're probably going to be closer to 14, 15. And then you can figure out how much cannabis is in that as well, so that they are tailored to your needs, so that you're not necessarily, you know, if you are using them while you're out and about heading the gym or doing something active or whatever the case might be, that might not be the time where you want to get really high. So be sure you calculate how strong they are so that they are at the level that you would like. And there's a lot of times I really like microdosing. I just like eating something that I know has a bit of cannabis in it because I feel like it's going to holistically just help balance out my body and allow me to go about my day feeling as best as I can. And I'm not going to feel the psychoactive effects, but I don't think every time you use cannabis, you need to do that. You don't have to get high every time. That's what other things that I make are for. Like when I'm making fudge in the evening or making fudge and I'm hanging out in the evenings, that's when I really like to, when I really like to get high and relax and just unwind after a long day and and that kind of thing. And I do like the shorter or smaller doses for other types of activities. Now, of course, everyone does things the way they want to do them, and that is the beauty of being able to make your own stuff, make your own edibles. You do it exactly how you like to do it, and no one can tell you otherwise. So I think that's it. I think that's it for this week, my friends. I will be including the recipe in the show notes. I'll be linking to the website because this woman also had a lot of other great recipes on her site from the looks of it. I did have a look through and uh a lot of stuff from scratch that didn't look too tricky. I did like this no-bake energy balls because they are no bake and they're pretty quick to put together, especially if you don't have such a wet batter like I did. But they they did taste good and they will firm up. So so I hope you're all staying healthy out there, my friends. That you try these protein balls and see how you find them. And let me know what you think. Send me pictures if you have a chance to make them. I would love to see it. Love to see them. And until next week, my friends, stay high.