Vanilla date tumeric energy bites

I was feeling motivated to make energy bites because they always came in handy while I was busy with work and grad school...and I am back to work! Big news, I know, and trust me, I am feeling it. I am thrilled to be back to work! My new job is downtown Minneapolis, which means I will be commuting either on the light rail or via bike, which also means carrying everything on my back, which brings me back to energy bites.

The way I make energy bites has drastically changed. 5 years ago, I was making them with lots of peanut butter, protein powder, oats, chocolate chips and soy nuts. Drew still prefers lots of peanut butter and protein powder, but now I try to fit as many superfoods as I can. Also, I usually make 2 kinds of energy bites now - a version for Drew (with superfoods hidden) and a version for me, usually on fire with ginger or turmeric. 

I decided to scour through a handful of energy bite recipes and pull out ingredients that I was drawn to and also, that I had on-hand. I was beyond thrilled (and very surprised) when the first recipe resulted in a winning batch!

Here is what I came up with:

- 12 Medjool dates 

- 1/2 cup sliced almonds
- 1/2 cup walnuts
- 1/2 cup oats
- 1/4 cup almond butter or peanut butter
- 1 Tbs. maca
- 1 Tbs. chia
- 2 tsp. turmeric
- 2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Halve and pit Medjool dates and soak in hot water for approximately 10 minutes.
2. In a food processor or blender, pulse together almonds, walnuts and oats. It truly doesn't matter if you briefly pulse it to keep it chunky, pulse it to a much finer consistency, or somewhere in between. Place in a bowl and mix in maca, chia seeds, turmeric, and cinnamon.
3. After Medjool dates have soaked and softened, place in food processor/blender with almond/peanut butter and vanilla.
4. Mix all ingredients together and roll into desired size bites. Helpful hint: it may be helpful to pop the mixture into the freezer as it can get very sticky and hard to make balls when at room temperature.
5. This step is optional, but I pulsed coconut flakes and goji berries to roll half the bites through.
6. Store in freezer.

Optional add-ins: protein powder, raisins, pistachios, hemp seeds, ginger, etc. Get creative! Also, if you prefer more heat, feel free to use more turmeric or add in ginger. Either this recipe masked the turmeric taste really well or I simply didn't use enough.

One batch lasted me 2 weeks, so I plan to make more today! They are so great for a pre-lunch or mid-afternoon snack or a post-workout bomb to avoid eating everything in sight.

Let me know what you think!
xoxo,
Dee

This batch made 13 energy bites - obviously, you can make them bigger or smaller to make more or less. As you can see, I only rolled some of them in 'pulsed' coconut and goji berry - my hope was that Mr. L would eat the ones that looked less 'superfoody'. No go. He is on to my tactics of hiding secret ingredients in food.... 

I may just have to frame as this was my first real recipe development! As you can see it really started with throwing ingredients down and adjusting from there. Also, please note that this says 3 Tbs. maca and the real recipe only has 1 Tbs. 3 Tbs. of maca could have been interesting...