5 INGREDIENTS NO BAKE ENERGY BITES

No-Bake & No Food Processor Required.

5 Ingredients Heart-Healthy Energy Bites

Ready in 2 Minutes!

These easy and delicious COCOLATE (no, that’s not a typo, it’s what I am calling these energy balls, you will see why) grab-n-go snacks are also great to satisfy your sweet tooth cravings (yep, talking about myself), without all the processed sugar in them! 

Make these COCOLATE energy bites as part of your meal prep this weekend and enjoy them throughout the week. That is if you allow them to last an entire week, the first time I made these they were all gone within 2 days (and we are not even guilty about it hehe). 

Or make them right away when your tastebuds demand some, trust me, I am not kidding when I say it only takes 2 minutes! 

Cuz that is exactly how much time I had on my hands when our friend was visiting us last weekend and literally made these in between when he pulled into our driveway and the time when he rang the doorbell. 

Our friend is vegan and I wanted to whip up some dessert for after dinner. I mean, no dinner is complete without dessert right? Especially when you have guests. 

Made this 4-layer Neapolitan Dessert for his birthday a few years back (and it was a HUGE HIT!). 

Typically, when I make dessert it mostly ends up being something that includes dairy. And my pantry and refrigerator are almost always stocked up with all the ingredients I might need for it. But when it comes to making vegan desserts it takes a little bit of planning (as in stocking up on vegan ingredients). 

And that completely slipped my mind and it didn’t even occur to me until after I finished cooking dinner. I had 5 minutes until his ETA which is when I came up with the idea to make these Coconut + Chocolate (hence the name, COCOLATE) energy bites! 

Personally to me, dessert always comes down to something that has the magic ingredient, chocolate!

While I have made energy balls several times before, I had for some reason never made them with coconut in them (though as a South Indian we use coconut in a majority of our recipes). 

I typically opt for oats, nuts, nut butters, and seeds when I make energy balls, or I make them with only nuts and dates (like how my mom used to make when we were little, she still does when she visits us). 

But I am so glad that the idea for these COCOLATE energy bites occurred to me, cuz I can now whip these up as soon as that craving strikes, hehe! 

When I showed these energy bites on Instagram stories you guys sent me quite a few DMs asking for the recipe, trust me, my intention wasn’t to make you wait. 

I wanted to make more energy bites for Valentine’s Day for my boys (yep, even the little one loved them!) and wanted to pick up these V-Day themed molds before I made the next batch. 

So here you go, the world’s easiest, tastiest, and quickest, healthy dessert (if I may say so myself)… 

5 INGREDIENTS NO BAKE ENERGY BITES

INGREDIENTS

• 1½  cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• ¼ cup cacao powder (note, it is not cocoa but cacao which is bitter unlike cocoa powder)
• ⅓ cup roughly chopped walnuts
• ¼ cup chia seeds
• ½ cup almond butter
• ¼ cup maple syrup

Ok, it seems like I lied, it isn’t 5 but 6 ingredients. Looks like I need to learn to count from my 2.9-year-old son 😮 

P.S. In all honesty, I rarely ever measure ingredients when I am cooking. So I had eyeballed and dumped all the ingredients in a big mixing bowl before making these Cocolate energy balls. So if you find that there is an imbalance in proportions then adjust them according to your taste. 

Because everyone prefers different kinds of texture and different levels of sweetness when it comes to energy balls. 

INSTRUCTIONS

• Add all the ingredients to a large mixing bowl, starting with dry ingredients followed by wet ingredients.
• Mix the ingredients until everything is combined well.
• Scoop about 2 tablespoons of dough into your palms and roll it into a ball.
• Gobble up a few energy balls and put the remaining in a container and store them in the fridge for later use.
• Alternatively, put the well-combined dough into your favorite molds, put the mold in the freezer for 10-15 minutes, and then take the energy bites out of the mold.
• Additionally, roll the energy balls in shredded coconut or drizzle almond butter or chocolate on top of them.

TIP: Since this recipe uses almond butter (which by default has some oil) and maple syrup, they both act as binding agents and there is no need to add any additional oil or water to combine the ingredients. 

I may or may not be enjoying an energy bite or two as I write this blogpost 😉

That’s it, I hope you give this a try and fall in love with these easy peasy heart-healthy dessert just as much as I do! 😀

“Keep calm plants do have protein.”

xoxo,

Kusum