“Mom! What do we have for a snack? I’m hungry!” I hear this at least once a day, despite the fact that I always make sure to have apples, oranges, carrots, nuts, cheese, tortillas, and bread on hand for quick (nutritious!) snacks. Honestly, it is difficult for these things to compete in taste with the kinds of snacks the Otters have in mind (i.e. cookies, chips, pretzels), and I think they are ever hopeful that perhaps I have magically acquired the more desirable snacks in a fit of nutritional ignorance.
Alas, they are rarely so lucky.
So, I thought I’d try to make them a snack that could fit the bill. I was looking for a snack like the oat bites (sort of like Aussie bites, maybe more like Bobo bites) I find at the store, which come in small quantities for kind of large prices. I set about developing a snack that was sweet-ish like a cookie, packed with protein, and made with straightforward ingredients. This is where I landed. I hope that you like it and that it helps to relieve some of your after school snack-related stress!
If you need this to be gluten free, be certain to select gluten free rolled oats and use nut butter and honey that has not been contaminated with bread from sandwich making.
Grain/seed Blend
- ½ cup salted sunflower seeds
- 1 cup rolled oats (gluten free if necessary)
- 1/3 cup shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
Preheat the oven to 350-degrees and line a baking tray with parchment. Place ingredients in the pitcher of a high-speed blender and pulse 10-12 times or until the mixture is in uniformly sized 1/8-1/16 inch bits.
Nut Butter Blend
- ½ cup/132 grams creamy nut butter
- ¼ cup butter
- ¼ cup honey
Combine butters and honey in a microwave safe dish. Heat on a low setting for 45 seconds in the microwave so that the butters soften but do not melt. They should stir together easily at that point.
Final Assembly
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 cup garbanzo bean flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup minced dried fruit OR mini chocolate chips
Stir the brown sugar, vanilla, and egg into the nut butter blend. Place in the blender with the grain/seed blend and remaining ingredients (garbanzo flour through dried fruit). Pulse 5-10 times to blend. Turn the dough into a mixing bowl and kneed to bring it fully together.
Scoop heaping teaspoon measures of dough into your hands. Roll dough into a ball and then slightly flatten it. Place it on the prepared baking sheet and then bake for 10 minutes. Cool and store for a week or so in an air-tight container. Freeze for longer storage.
