These are an incredibly easy snack to make that the whole family will love. At roughly 100 calories each, you can eat two for a snack for a weight loss goal and your kids could have 4 or 5 before going to practice for two or more hours.
The recipe below is a “base” that you can customize to your liking
These can be stored either in the fridge for a week or in the freezer for up to three months, and you can easily double or triple the recipe.
Ingredients
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½ cup natural, unsweetened peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter, or sunflower butter
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3 TBSP honey or maple syrup
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⅛ tsp fine sea salt
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⅔ cup lightly packed vanilla whey protein powder (other flavors also work, and collagen powder can work as well)
Directions
Mix the nut or seed butter, honey, and salt in a medium bowl until blended. Add the protein powder and stir until completely blended.
Depending on your protein powder and the humidity that day, the mixture might be too wet or too dry. If it’s too wet, add some more protein powder or you can add ground oats or ground flaxseed. If it’s too dry, add water or milk (regular or non-dairy) one tablespoon at a time until the mixture comes together.
Scoop roughly 1 ½ tbsp of the mixture into your hands and shape into 1-inch balls
If you want, you can roll it in a coating which adds more flavor and also helps keep your hands clean.
Variations
Chocolate Peanut Butter
Use chocolate protein powder instead of vanilla and add 1 ½ tbsp of unsweetened, natural cocoa (not Dutch process). Add 1 ½ tbsp of water when you add the honey to the recipe.
Moca Java
Use chocolate protein powder instead of vanilla. Add 2 tsp of instant espresso powder, dissolved in 2 tsp warm water, with the honey.
Gingerbread
Use 3 tbsp molasses as the sweetner. Add ½ tsp ground cinnamon, ¼ tsp ground ginger, ½ tsp ground clove when you add the protein powder.
Snickerdoodle
Add ¾ tsp ground cinnamon and ⅛ tsp ground nutmeg when you add the protein powder. Add 3 tbsp chopped raisins to the dough before rolling into balls.
Coatings Ideas
Mini semisweet chocolate chips or cacao nibs
Unsweetened, natural cocoa powder
Unsweetened flake or shredded coconut
Finely chopped nuts (almonds, walnuts, cashews, walnuts)
Seeds (sesame, chia, pepitas, sunflower seeds, flax)
Finely chopped dried fruit (cherries, raisins, apricots, blueberries)
Quick-cooking rolled oats
The variations are endless with these. Just remember, the more you add to these, the higher the calories can go.
If you do not use whey or collagen protein powders, other powders can work, but you’ll need to play around with the amount of powder and liquid in the recipe.
Nutrition for one 1-inch truffle
Calories: 109
Fat: 6g
Carbs: 7g
Protein: 8g
