Easy Protein Energy Balls - It starts with protein (2024)

These yummy chocolate chip peanut butter protein energy balls are a great protein-packed snack for a busy day! Whip up a batch on the weekend, and enjoy an easy snack all week!

This year, I was assigned to “late lunch” as a teacher, which meant I couldn’t eat until 1:30 in the afternoon. For someone who was used to eating around 11:30, this worried me greatly.

I quickly realized that I would need a hearty snack to keep me full until lunch, and I found myself buying protein energy bars to eat as a daily snack.

At the same time, I was going through our pantry and realized that we had a tub of peanut butter powder, so I felt challenged to create some recipes to use the powdered PB.

Enter these protein oatmeal peanut butter chocolate chip balls. They solved my problem of daily energy needs, keeping my hunger at bay during school AND my personal goal to develop peanut butter powder recipes.

Ingredients to make protein energy balls

• Peanut butter powder – powdered peanut butter is easy to find. I live in a rural community, and I can find this at my local WalMart. You can also go directly to the manufacturer’s site. This PB2 powder is my favorite! What’s great about peanut butter powder is it’s lower in calorie and higher in protein.
• Collagen peptides – I love using collagen for an extra protein boost. You could also substitute your favorite protein powder!
• Oatmeal – Oatmeal adds some heft to these protein balls and hopefully provide an energy boost
• Maple syrup – I prefer maple syrup and honey as natural sweeteners, and these protein balls are minimally sweetened. I tried the recipe without any sweetener, and I found just a little bit of syrup made these balls so much better. But, you could leave this out if you prefer!
• Chocolate chips – The chocolate chips add a perfect pop of flavor to this protein energy ball recipe. I love the Hershey Milk Chocolate chips, but you could substitute in your favorite brand to make these lower in sugar (using keto chocolate chips) or dairy free (using a brand like Enjoy Life).
• Salt – A dash of salt contrasts nicely with the chocolate and peanut butter in this recipe

How do you make energy balls with powdered peanut butter & chocolate chips?

1. Mix the finest ingredients first: the powdered peanut butter, collagen (or your protein powder of choice), and the salt
2. Add the water to create creamy peanut butter.
3. Stir the maple syrup into the creamy peanut butter mixture.
4. Mix in the oatmeal, making sure it evenly distributes throughout the peanut butter.
5. Add the chocolate chips (at this point you may want to continue working the dough with your hands).
6. Form the mixture into one large ball, and break that in half.
7. Break the halves in half, and now each small half (1/4 of the mixture) can be formed into two protein balls. Continue to break each smaller half into two protein balls. In the end, you will have 8 protein balls.

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