Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Protein Balls

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These are my classic, tried and true protein balls that are easy to make, good fuel for your body and most importantly, they taste great!

I started making these protein balls my freshman year of high school to bring to track meets for easy snacks after races. It wasn’t long before bringing a few for myself turned into making a whole batch to bring for my distance teammates. By my senior year I was doubling this recipe every day before a cross country or track meet to bring and share with my teammates. It became a fun ritual and the protein balls felt like a good luck charm for me!

Flash forward a couple years and now these protein balls have become an easy snack staple, especially during this time at home in quarantine. I like to have these ready in the fridge so that I can grab one after a run to refuel, to tide me over until dinner in the late afternoon, or as a healthier treat for dessert!

Health Benefits:

  • Oats and flax seed are a good source of fiber, which is important for our digestive health.
  • Peanut butter is a healthy fat and a great plant-based source of protein, which is needed to build and repair our tissues (important post-exercise).
  • Oats are also a carbohydrate, which means that they provide our body with essential energy (carbs are important in a balanced diet, something that “diet culture” often tries to change).

Easy Substitutions & Additions:

  • Any nut butter of your choice can be used to replace peanut butter
  • Maple syrup can be used to replace honey
  • Chocolate chips can be left out or replaced by dried fruit such as raisins or cranberries.
  • For added protein, include a scoop or two of your protein powder of choice (if consistency becomes too dry, add a little more peanut butter- this isn’t a perfect science)

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Protein Balls

A delicious and healthy snack to fuel your body at any time of the day!

Ingredients

  • 1 cup old-fashioned oats
  • 1/2 cup peanut butter
  • 1/2 cup flax seed
  • 1/3 cup chocolate chips
  • 1/3 cup honey
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

  1. Add all ingredients to a bowl and mix until combined
  2. If consistency appears to be too dry or moist for your preference, simply add a little more peanut butter or oats/ flax seed
  3. Refrigerate for 20 minutes to make it easier to shape into balls (if you don’t have the time or patience you can skip this step)
  4. Use a cookie dough scoop or spoons to shape into balls
  5. Store in wax/parchment paper lined tupperware in the fridge and enjoy!

If you try these out on your own, I hope you enjoy them as much as I do! Thanks for taking the time to be here and if you have any questions, comments or feedback, I would love to hear it.

–Brit

Welcome!

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Hello and welcome to Balanced by Brit! If you’re reading this that means I finally got the courage to hit publish on this blog and am probably feeling pretty nervous and vulnerable, but also relieved and proud. I have been thinking of starting a nutrition related blog for a while now, and this unexpected time at home gave me the perfect opportunity to start. I am still learning the ropes and brainstorming, but I knew that if I ever wanted to do this that I just had to go for it, otherwise the perfectionist in me would never feel ready.

My goal is to share recipes I love, nutrition information that I learn, sustainable switches that benefit our environment and other interests that I have. I want people to know that there is no perfect way to live your life, which is why I believe balance is so important in all aspects of it! This is what that means for me in a few aspects of my own life…

Nutrition- Though I am still only a dietetics student, I am a believer in Intuitive Eating and the Health At Every Size (HAES) approach. These are both non-diet based and allow for balanced and healthy diets without harmful restrictions. They promote body acceptance and the idea that there is no single perfect diet or body size.

This was an amazing brunch that included both protein and carbs. A balanced and healthy diet can include both and not be restrictive, allowing you room to enjoy yourself and be happy!

Sustainability- We live in a materialistic world and anyone who knows me, knows that I like to online shop. However, as I learn more about our environmental issues, I am trying to purchase more sustainable products and limit my waste. Environmental sustainability isn’t about everyone going zero waste, it’s about everyone making the simple changes that they can to consciously reduce our impact on the environment.

Caring for the environment is important for more reasons that I could write, but some simple reasons to care include the protection of wildlife that call this place home and ensuring that these beautiful landscapes don’t disappear.

This blog is definitely pushing me outside of my comfort zone already, but that’s something that makes me proud and am excited for (but still scared). I have already rediscovered my love of photography while taking recipe pictures and I can’t wait to keep trying new things and improving! Thanks for following along with me as I start this new hobby and I hope you’ll enjoy it just half as much as I do!!

-Brit