Also known as: my children’s favorite snack at the moment! These little balls of oatmeal goodness are saving my wallet and sanity.

When the kids say “I’m hungry!” between meals, I can tell them to open the fridge and grab a few energy bites. They call them “ball balls” which is adorable haha. They use inexpensive ingredients and come together so quickly.

They only have four ingredients: oatmeal, peanut butter, honey, and chocolate chips. I feel like they’re fairly nutritious and give the kids a great boost of energy… like they need any more energy 😜

A few things I love about this recipe:

• I almost always have all these ingredients on hand
• They come together in minutes
• My kids love them
• They’re customizable (see the notes after the recipe!)
• They don’t need to be baked (yay for no cooling time!)
• My kids can help me make this recipe because it’s not complicated

Ingredients
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
2 Tablespoons honey

Directions
1. In a medium-sized bowl, combine the oats and chocolate chips. Stir to combine.
2. Heat the peanut butter and honey (together or separately–it does’t matter!) in the microwave for 10-15 seconds to loosen and soften them up.
3. Pour the honey and peanut butter into the bowl with the oats and chocolate chips and stir until the mixture is fully incorporated.
4. Using a cookie scoop or your hands (your hands will get messy!), make balls with the dough and place in a storage container or on a plate. I typically use a tablespoon-sized cookie scoop, but you can make these whatever size you’d like.
5. Place container of energy bites in the refrigerator. They will be “set” in about an hour, but they can be eaten before then! They are good for about a week in the refrigerator… but hopefully they don’t last that long 😇

Notes
1. These are very customizable:

• I typically use old fashioned oatmeal, but you could also use quick oats.
• I haven’t experimented with different types of nut butter, but I’d assume it wouldn’t change much!
• For the add-in (the chocolate chips), you can use mini chocolate chips, chopped chocolate of choice, or any other add-in roughly the size of a chocolate chip (dried fruit like raisins, mini m&ms, chopped nuts, etc.).
• If you are vegan, you can use maple syrup in place of honey and a vegan add-in.
• If you’re gluten free, use gluten free oats in place of regular oatmeal.

2. These make about 10 Tablespoon-sized energy bites. Feel free to double the recipe if you need more!

If you want to see me and the kids (chaotically) making these, check out the 7:12 mark of this vlog 😂