Snack

Tractor Approved Energy Bites

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These little goodies are full of healthful ingredients PLUS they happen to taste like cookie dough, if you ask me.  They are full of good tasting ingredients and have loads of fiber and protein to boot.  I freeze them in packages of 3-4 and pull them out when I need them.  The kids go wild for them and one of my favorite pig-guys-that-I’ve-never-met went wild for them when I sent him some last week.  I promise I’ll make you more again soon, Dave!

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These are wonderful any time of day for a boost of energy.  They hold together well and are great to snack on during long hunts, or days away from the kitchen and steady meals.  I’ll be packing these for my daughter to take to her softball games this spring and packing them for our family during the busy harvest days in the fall.

Any picture where my serious #farmer Dad is smiling is a dang treasure! Little guy on board today too. All hands on deck #farm365 #farmkid #farmlife

Today we went to Grandma and Grandpas to haul corn to town.  This little guy wasn’t happy about that at all… (haha, totally kidding.) Also, when you can sneak a picture of your ultra-serious-farmer-Dad and there is a smile, that one is going in the memory book!

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I stopped by to see the tractor (my sister and I call it OUR tractor because its the one we drive sorry Dad) because it had a yearly maintenance appointment and the ‘shine’ put to it at the John Deere store this week. Let me tell you something, these guys knocked it out of the park.

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And hopefully they are reading this because I’m dropping off my S.U.V. there Monday. (kidding) They even left my lipgloss, emergency diaper (hello I have a toddler), and snacks right where they were.

This mild weather can certainly stick around!

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I hope you have a great weekend and do nothing but things you want to and love.

Tractor Approved No Bake Energy Bites

By: Cristen    www.foodandswine.com

Ingredients:

3/4 C creamy peanut butter or almond butter

3 TBSP light olive oil or vegetable oil

1 TBSP butter

1/4 tsp cinnamon (optional)

1/3 C honey

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 C regular rolled oats

1 1/2 C roasted salted almonds, roughly chopped

1 1/2 C salted peanuts, roughly chopped

1/4 C sesame seeds

1 1/2 C mini chocolate chips or mixture of mini and large chocolate chips

Directions:

In a medium saucepan combine peanut butter, oil, butter, cinnamon and honey.  Bring to a simmer over medium heat.  Simmer 30 seconds.  Remove from heat, cool to warm.  Meanwhile in a large mixing bowl combine oats, almonds, peanuts, and sesame seeds. Place half of this mixture in a food processor, pulse until fine. (Don’t over-process because the nuts can get hot and turn into nut butter!) Add this mixture back to large mixing bowl.  Stir in cooled (warm) peanut butter-oil -honey mixture until well combined.  Add chocolate chips and mix together with clean hands to incorporate.  Scoop 2 tsp – 1 TBSP each, form into balls. Chill until firm.  Store in refrigerator or freezer. Makes 4 dozen bites.

*Feel free to sub some of the oats for chia seeds, flax seeds, ground flaxmeal, etc.  Substitute the nuts to work around an allergy if necessary as well.

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8 Comments

  • Reply Beth Ann January 23, 2015 at 10:50 pm

    Sound so easy and yummy! Another winning recipe from you! :-)

  • Reply jenieats January 24, 2015 at 12:30 am

    I love tractor approved recipes! These look delicious.

  • Reply Julie January 24, 2015 at 2:51 am

    how much cinnamon should be added?

    • Reply Cristen January 24, 2015 at 3:26 am

      Ooops! I will have to edit that in the morning. 1/4 tsp does the trick!

  • Reply Sherry January 24, 2015 at 3:10 pm

    I may be missing something, but what do you do with the other 1/2 of the oat-nut mixture? These look yummy!

    • Reply Cristen January 24, 2015 at 10:25 pm

      Hi Sherry! You are supposed to stir the processed 1/2 of the oat-nut mixture back into the other un-processed portion. Doing this gives these bites the ability to stick together better, a little more binding agent if you will. If you left all of the oats and nuts whole and didn’t process them in the food processor, you’d have a more difficult time forming the balls. Let me know if you have any other questions!

  • Reply Just A Mom Giving It A Tri January 25, 2015 at 4:06 am

    Yum! We will be trying these at our house! They sounds great!

  • Reply Brooke Haney January 25, 2015 at 10:52 pm

    I’m packing these to take to the office!

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