Last Updated on September 21, 2014
With our diets being as strict as they have been lately (we both have fitness goals coming up with races and physique shows), it was decided that this Saturday would be a classic “cheat” or as I like to call them, “reward” day.
For those of you not familiar with the concept of a cheat/reward day, it is typically a day off from a diet where instead of focusing more on a high protein and low-carbohydrate diet, it is switched around with a higher emphasis on carbohydrates. Because of this special day on Saturday, I decided to make a high carbohydrate sweet treat. Not wanting to stray too far away from the diet, I took an old classic “no-bake” cookie idea and turned it into a healthy (healthier) treat for our “cheat” day Saturday.
Introducing “Oatmeal Peanut Butter No-Bake Balls” (long title, I know. But it is hard to come up with a good and concise way to describe this recipe).
Above is the pictured ingredients (nutritional information at the conclusion of the post).
And that’s it! 9 simple ingredients for a healthful sweet-tooth treat! Here’s how I made it (below):
Measure out 4 cups of raw oats and pour them into a large mixing bowl.
Add in 3 scoops of the vanilla whey protein.
Add 1/2 tablespoon of cinnamon.
Add in the 8 tablespoons of PB2, 1 cup of fiber bran cereal, and 1 tablespoon of flax seed.
Add the 4 tablespoons of raw organic honey, 1 tablespoon of powdered cocoa, and also the 1 tablespoon of organic coconut oil.
Add in 3/4 cups of water and begin to stir (as you add in the water).
Be patient! This part takes some time and it is easy to get carried away with the water because it “seems” dry.
Don’t worry! It will mix in well and you will have the perfect texture for the no-bake cookies in no time!
Get ready to form the balls.
TIP: spray down your hands with no-stick olive oil spray before forming so that more oats go into the balls as opposed to on your hands!
Form into “golf ball” size balls (approximately) and place on a no-stick cookie sheet or pan (sprayed with oil first).
This recipe should yield approximately 16 no-bake cookie balls.
Here is the formed finished product! Yum! They taste as good as they look…or better…
More close-ups of the chocolate peanut butter no-bake fitness balls…
And finally, there you have it: the finished no-bake product! Now, just stick them into the refrigerator or freezer for an hour or so to firm them up. And: SERVE!
These are sure to be a hit with the whole family and the nice thing is that you do not even have to tell them that the recipe is relatively healthy in comparison to other desserts and cookies!
Ingredients:
- Fiber Complete-High fiber (no sugar) bran cereal : 1 cup
- Organic coconut oil (Costco) : 1 tablespoon
- Pure powdered cocoa : 1 tablespoon
- Raw organic honey (source of the sugar in this recipe) : 4 tablespoons
- Flax seed : 1 tablespoon
- PB2 (powdered low-fat low-calorie peanut butter) : 8 tablespoons
- Vanilla whey protein (Body Fortress brand) : 3 scoops
- Raw oats : 4 cups
- Cinnamon : 1/2 tablespoon
- Water : 3/4 cup (no more, no less!)
Directions:
- Measure out 4 cups of raw oats and pour them into a large mixing bowl.
- Add in 3 scoops of the vanilla whey protein.
- Add 1/2 tablespoon of cinnamon.
- Add in the 8 tablespoons of PB2, 1 cup of fiber bran cereal, and 1 tablespoon of flax seed.
- Add the 4 tablespoons of raw organic honey, 1 tablespoon of powdered cocoa, and also the 1 tablespoon of organic coconut oil.
- Add in 3/4 cups of water and begin to stir (as you add in the water). *This part takes some time and it is easy to get carried away with the water because it “seems” dry. It will mix in well and you will have the perfect texture for the no-bake cookies in no time*
- Get ready to form the balls. *TIP: spray down your hands with no-stick olive oil spray before forming so that more oats go into the balls as opposed to on your hands*
- Form into “golf ball” size balls (approximately) and place on a no-stick cookie sheet or pan (sprayed with oil first).
- This recipe should yield approximately 16 no-bake cookie balls.
- Refridge, or serve right away!
- Store in a air-tight sealed container
Finally, here are the totals for the nutritional facts for the cookies (per serving, assuming 16 cookies yielded per batch of ingredients:
Other interesting side notes:
- Although these cookies are relatively high in carbohydrates, they are also high in protein and high in dietary fiber. 4.4 grams of fiber per cookies means that the net carbohydrates per serving is only 19.4 grams!
- Again, these cookies are high in protein, so there is a fair amount of nutritional benefits and also the carbohydrates present in the cookies are mainly complex and slow digesting: this means that these are far less susceptible to making you gain bad weight! Cool, right?
- I hope you enjoy the cookies and PLEASE, if you have questions or comments, just leave them below and I will get an answer to you as soon as possible.
- Also, please sign up for my updates at the beginning of this post so you can stay in the loop (you’ll get a non-obtrusive email) every time I have a new post to share with you!
- Thanks and have a wonderful “cheat” snack by using this yummy recipe!