Kitchen Trails - Energy Bites

We were at our kids' cousins' house the other day for some swimming practice and my brother-in-law Dazza brought out some delicious nuggets for the kids after their swim. Energy balls, filled with delicious goodness!!

After popping one in my mouth, I asked Dazza how to make them, and Dazza told me that it was super easy to make. I couldn't stop thinking about the healthy energy boosting snacks and I came up with a batch of my own. DEE LEE CIOUS!! Though healthy, this is not a low fat, low calorie snack, given the nut fat and honey used.

I mainly agak-agak (guess or go by feel) the amounts I used, so here is a rough guideline of the ingredients I used in mine.

(Yields about 28 balls of 1 inch diameter)

1 cup organic rolled oats, blitzed until they are a little finer cos I really don't like having flakes of dry and chewy oats eating this. Can be substituted with instant oats, then there's no need to blitz

1/3 cup of chopped nuts. Here I used walnuts and peanuts which I have soaked overnight and roasted using the air fryer

4 Tablespoons of pure peanut butter, or nut butter of your choice. I used pure peanut butter that I got from a lady who sells nut butters, no fillers or extra sugars or whatnots

5 Tablespoons of raw honey

4 Tablespoons of good quality dark cocoa powder. Can be substituted with chocolate/chocolate chips of your choice, just shave or chop the chocolate into small bits if using

1 Tablespoon organic chia seeds

A tiny teensy pinch of himalayan salt

A splash of vanilla extract

Just mix the oats, nuts, cocoa powder, salt, and chia seeds together until it's thoroughly combined. Add the peanut butter and the honey, and mix well. Wash and dry your hands thoroughly, and scoop out enough to roll into 1 inch balls, or whatever size your prefer. Pack it firmly with your palms as you shape the balls

I can keep mine for about a week in the fridge.

Note: 

If it's too soft, pop it in the fridge for a while before rolling out into balls, or if it's softer than that, add a bit more oats

If it's way too hard to work with, add a bit of honey or peanut butter

Remember, it needs to be quite solid and hard to pack into firm balls

Kitchen Trails - Meatballs

Made some meatballs today. This can go with pasta, noodle soup, braised in some sauce as a dish to go with rice, anything that you can think of, really.

I made this with lean, weight watcher's minced beef, and oat flour instead of bread crumbs for a healthier option.

200g minced meat

1/4 cup oat crumbs, I blitzed some organic rolled oats 

1 egg

1/2 a small carrot, blitzed into fine bits

A handful of spinach, blitzed or finely chopped

1 Tablespoon of parmesan cheese

Garlic powder

Onion powder

A dash of black pepper

A pinch of himalayan salt

A glug of olive oil

Mix all the ingredients together and chill in the fridge for an hour or so. Shape into balls.

Heat up a pan and add the olive oil. Add the meat balls in batches so it doesn't get crowded in the pan. Cook for 4 minutes or so, and then turn the balls around, cook a bit further and remove from pan

I did one step further, I didn't want to brown the meat balls too much in case it got burnt. I covered them in baking/cooking paper and bunged them into the oven to cook for another 10-15 minutes so that the inside is thoroughly cooked as well