Monday, April 20, 2015

No-Bake Double Chocolate Crunch Peanut Butter Snack Bites (vegan)


The older my kids get, the more conscious I become of getting them into the kitchen to cook and bake. Sure we have made many meals and desserts together over the years - I know it's important to start early, even when they are more mess-makers than helpers. But now that they are 12 (almost 13 - gasp!) and 10, they are fully capable of following recipes on their own.

Because they can still be picky about what they eat, getting them involved with food preparation makes it more likely they will actually eat the food. Even when we add ingredients that wouldn't be so palatable coming from Mom. You know, those nutritious little goodies that we mothers like to sneak into our food.



Recently my son had an out-of-town appointment that brought us home a couple hours before the end of the school day. Rather than send him to school for just two hours, we decided to spend a bit of time one-on-one, making a special snack together.

Any recipe with peanut butter is a plus for him, so we started with Kraft All Natural Crunchy Peanut Butter. We decided to make a variation of Kraft's recipe for Peanut Butter Bites with Raisins. It is based on three simple ingredients - peanut butter, large flake rolled oats and honey. I opted for brown rice syrup instead of honey to make my recipe vegan. You can add what you wish to the three main ingredients to easily create a unique recipe all your own!


Any snack or dessert tends to be a success in our house with the addition of a few chocolate chips. So we threw 1/2 cup of dairy-free, semi-sweet chocolate chips into our mix. We also added 1/2 cup of ground flax seeds for added fibre, antioxidants and Omega-3 fatty acids. As you probably noticed, our snack bites are called "Double Chocolate Crunch Peanut Butter Snack Bites." Why double chocolate? We added a tablespoon of healthy raw cacao for an extra kick of sugar-free, natural chocolate. The "crunch" comes from the crunchy peanut butter, the chocolate chips and the large flake rolled oats.


Here is my helper mixing the crunchy peanut butter with brown rice syrup.



Then it was time to add in more ingredients - large flake rolled oats, cacao and ground flax.


Next up, sweet and delicious chocolate chips!


He then gave it all a good stir, formed the mix into balls about 2 tablespoons (1 inch) in size and popped it into the fridge for a half hour.



Kraft All Natural Crunchy Peanut Butter is made from 100% roasted peanuts, so it has a great pure peanut flavour without added salt, sugar or oils.


These snack bites are a perfect healthy, energy-filled after-school snack. I would even pop them in the freezer and take a couple out at breakfast time or for a pre- or post-workout pick-me-up.


My son and I enjoyed making these healthy snack bites together AND he declared them "delicious." Healthy and delicious? I'd say this family-made recipe is a success! My not-so-secret goal is to have the kids preparing meals for the whole family by the time they are teens. And, of course, these skills will carry over into their adult lives, so they are well prepared to take good care of themselves.



Share Your Peanut Butter Snack Bites Recipe For A Chance To Win


Visit Sheblogs Canada to enter the Make It Yours photo contest! Share a photo of your Peanut Butter Snack Bites recipe and you'll be entered to win one of four Kraft Peanut Butter prize packs!

And now for the recipe! I hope you'll try it out...or, even better, make your own variation! What would you add to your Peanut Butter Snack Bites? If you have kids, what ingredients would they like to add? I'd love to hear your ideas!

For more Peanut Butter Snack Bites recipes, visit www.sticktogether.ca. Follow the hashtag #MyKPBsnackbite to join the conversation on Twitter.


No-Bake Double Chocolate Crunch Peanut Butter Snack Bites


by Joann MacDonald
Keywords: vegan cacao ball no-bake

Ingredients (10 servings (2 balls each))
  • 1/2 cup Kraft All Natural Crunchy Peanut Butter
  • 1/4 cup brown rice syrup
  • 1 cup large flake rolled oats
  • 1/2 cup ground flax seeds
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips
  • 1 Tbsp. cacao powder
Instructions

MIX together all ingredients in a medium bowl until blended.
ROLL into 20 (1-inch) balls, using about 2 Tbsp. for each.
CHILL for 20 to 30 min.
Enjoy!
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*Although this post has been generously sponsored by Kraft Canada, the opinions and language are my own, and in no way do they reflect Kraft Canada.



6 comments:

  1. Your little helper is a handsome one, and by the way I'm the same any dessert with peanut butter I'm in

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    1. Thank you! Oh yes, peanut butter! Yum! Peanut butter and chocolate...even better! ;)

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  2. I would eat half of that before rolling it in to balls! I really need to get the kids cooking more. I was visiting my friend and her ten year old son was in the kitchen making a veg curry with rice, then when that was done he emptied the washing machine and hung the washing outside. Reminds me that I better step up my efforts with replicating that in my home ;)

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    1. Now that's impressive! I need to work on that too...I am constantly picking up after my two and, quite honestly, it's exhausting!

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