Sunbutter Bites

My recipes are heavily influenced by what I ate growing up in the 70s and 80s. This was a time when convenience foods were becoming more and more common, but my Mom still preferred to cook from scratch. She thought it was a healthier and cheaper way to feed our family of seven. One recipe I remember snacking on was peanut butter candy. It was a mixture of peanut butter, powdered milk and syrup that was rolled into a log and refrigerated.

We loved this stuff as kids, but I am no longer into the dry milk, and my son is allergic to peanuts. So this recipe needed a make-over for our family. I subbed protein powder for the dry milk and Sunbutter for the peanut butter. I also incorporated some fun add-ins like raisins and chocolate chips. The resulting bites provide energy and some added protein. Yay! I don't know if I should call these a candy, energy bar substitute, or what....they both kind of describe them, so I went with bites. Either way, they are really good.

Sunbutter Bites

Ingredients:

1 cup Sunbutter (or your favorite nut butter)
1/2 cup protein powder
1/2 - 3/4 cup maple syrup
Pinch of salt
3 Tbsp cocoa powder

2 tbsp raisins
2 tbsp chocolate chips
2 tbsp raw sunflower seeds

Directions:

Put the Sunbutter, protein powder, 1/2 cup of the maple syrup, salt, and cocoa powder in a bowl or food processor and mix well. You want to start with 1/2 cup maple syrup and add a little more if you need to in order to help mix. This creates a nice thick dough, you could even mix it with your hands. It is like a really thick cookie dough. Once it is all combined, roll rounded teaspoons of the mixture into little balls and then top with the raisins, chocolate chips and sunflower seeds if you would like.

I used a vanilla plant based protein powder from Whole Foods, that is comparable to this Vega brand:



Product prices and availability are accurate as of Sunday, July 17, 2016 and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon.com at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.

For 35 bites. Nutritional information from caloriecount.about.com.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 19 g

Amount Per Serving

Calories 81 Calories from Fat 38

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 4.2g 7%

Saturated Fat 1.1g 5%

Trans Fat 0.0g

Cholesterol 8mg 3%

Sodium 45mg 2%

Potassium 100mg 3%

Total Carbohydrates 7.5g 2%

Dietary Fiber 0.6g 3%

Sugars 5.4g

Protein 4.5g

Vitamin A 0% • Vitamin C 0% Calcium 2% • Iron 5%

Nutrition Grade B

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet