A few weeks ago, I was lamenting about my son’s addiction to granola bars.
It went a little something like this… I watched my son pack his lunch. Sandwich. Chips. Radishes. Four GRANOLA BARS. (WTH?)
When asked, he said it was because he needed one for lunch, two for snack and one for his girlfriend. (Again, WTH?)
I did the math quickly in my head and realized my son was eating about $1 in granola bars a day. In order to not go in debt over granola bars, I decided it was time to make my own recipe.
Before I go any further, I have a confession. This is not my first time at the “I’ll bake my own granola bars” rodeo. I’ve been here before. I’ve tried to make my own granola bars/energy bites at least a half-dozen times. Each time had the same result, they end up in the trash and I wonder WHY IN THE HELL DO PEOPLE MAKE THEM FROM SCRATCH BECAUSE THEY ARE SO BAD.
So, I did a little research, talked to a couple of my girlfriends, and created a hybrid recipe of my own with the help of the recipes from The Greenbacks Gal and Smashed Peas & Carrots. And they were AWESOME! I love this recipe for the following reasons.
It’s freakin’ easy. Like you can’t mess it up.
Your kids think they are eating dessert. They aren’t. You’ve tricked them. {Enter maniacal laugh.}
You can add your own super-food dried fruit to suit any picky palate. My kids get dates in their bites and don’t even know it. They swear everything is chocolate. {Enter maniacal laugh, again.} Me, I love dried blueberries (I get them at Costco).
So, take THAT bad-granola-bars-bites rodeo! I’ve created a winner that my family asks for week after week.
Kid-Approved No-Bake Energy Bites Recipe
This Kid-Approved No-Bake Energy Bites Recipe is a perfect alternative for granola bars. I love that you can tailor the recipe with any dried fruit to suit any picky palette.
Recipe Yields: 18 – 20 bites
Ingredients
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter (or other nut butter)
1 cup dry oatmeal
2/3 cup dried super-fruit, chopped (dates, cranberries, figs, blueberries, raisins, cherries, goji berries)
1/3 cup honey
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup ground almonds or other nut
Instructions
1. Dump all ingredients into a large bowl.
If you are freaking out about ground almonds, don’t. Buy whole almonds and use either a food processor or blender. They make quick work of grounding almonds.
2. Mix well until all ingredients are well incorporated.
3. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for one hour in refrigerator.
4. Using a cookie scoop, take tablespoon size amount and roll into a tight ball. Place balls on a waxed paper lined cookie sheet.
5. Place cookie sheet into freezer and freeze for 3 hours. Transfer to a plastic bag and store in fridge for one week or freezer for up to 3 months.
We store them in the freezer and the kids pop them into their lunches each day. By lunch time they are usually thawed and easier to eat.
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LOVE this recipe? Make sure to check out all of our tried and true recipes in the Redefined Mom Recipe Index.
Great post! Cannot wait to try it at home for the little ones. I added this article to my Liv360 collection if you dont mind 🙂
Made over the weekend and the kids have been enjoying in their lunches! I love them too!
Woot. Woot!! And at-a-girl to you for making homemade instead of buying off the shelf. GO MOM!!
I am guessing ground almonds are the equivalent to almond meal??
Hmmm…I’m not sure. Anybody else know?
First, I would like to tell you how much my family and I love these! They are the go to snack for everything! While eating them I have started to wonder about the nutrition facts so tonight I tried to enter the facts into a calculator….it came up with some horrible numbers for sugar, fat, and calories but I’m not sure how accurate it is. Do you by chance have the nutrition facts for these or have some sort of idea?
Ashlyn – I don’t. By the ingredients, they are not lo-cal, by any means. And they are meant to be a substitute for pre-packaged granola bars in our family. As far as the sugar content, I think it depends on what nut butter (or peanut butter) you are using and the honey/agave you use. Choosing lower-sugar for those two ingredients will dramatically change the sugar content. Plus, remember, not all sugars are created equal. Natural sugars metabolize differently than refined sugars.
Kelly, thank you for this recipe! I make it at least once a week. I’ve tried several different recipes and this is the easiest, and the best. I raved it about it on my blog here: http://healthykitchenhealthybudget.com/2015/09/14/no-fail-oatmeal-cookie-bites/. Thanks again, Molly.
YEAH! I’m so glad you loved them!!! And I’m glad we are kindred spirits with our several “failed” granola bar attempts.
I’m curious for a substitute for the peanut/nut biggerbutter? My sons school doesn’t allow peant butter snacks and I would love to make these but…
We’ve used both Almond Butter (from Costco and Aldi) and Cashew Butter (Justin’s).
Can you specify if the 1/3 cup ground almonds is measured BEFORE or AFTER you grind them? Thanks!
After. 🙂
My son’s class does not allow any nut products in class. Do you have any substitutions?
Not really. You could substitute flax seed (ground up) for the almonds, but unless you could use sunflower butter, it would be hard.
These are great with grape nut cereal in place of nuts!
My daughter is fructose intolerant. She can not eat honey. I normal substitute 100% maple syrup for the honey. What are your thoughts on that? The syrup is thinner and not as sticky as the honey.
The honey is just a binder…if you could maybe grind a few oats down so the syrup has something more to stick to.
When you say “dry oatmeal” do you mean packets of oatmeal mix or just old fashioned or quick oats? I’d love to make these but not sure what to use!
Old Fashioned or Quick Oats. NOT the packets.
For but butter replacement. There is soy butter Butter and although more sweeter Biscof spread or ”cookie butter” could be used. I imagine for a less shelf stable substitute whipped cream.cheese could be used. For the nut butter try adding same amount of ground mixed ( nearly rye and regular oats for ground Almonds.
Can you use chia seeds in place of the 1/3 cup almonds?