You can never have too many recipes for Protein Bites! What you have in your pantry at any given moment will  determine which Protein Bite recipe you will  make, right?
The other night, my husband asked if I had any chocolate in the house and rather than handing him a little bowl of chocolate chips, I whipped up a batch of these. Infinitely better for you than that little bowl of choc chips!

1 cup Rolled Oats
1/2 cup Peanut Butter
2 Tablespoons Coconut Oil
1/2 cup Chocolate Chips – mini ones are best but use what you have
1/4 cup Honey
1/4 cup Chia Seeds
1/4 cup Dates, chopped
1/4 cup dried Cranberries
1/4 cup Pecans, chopped
2 Tablespoons Protein Powder
Pinch of Cinnamon

Sesame Seeds or Fine Desiccated Coconut

In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients except sesame seeds until everything is evenly distributed.
Roll into about 24 balls – I use a #2 Pampered Chef scoop for uniform size
Roll some or all in sesame seeds or coconut.
Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to set.
Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Variation:

Roll the mixture into a log.
Wrap in parchment paper and refrigerate overnight or for at least 4 hours. ( I slide my wrapped dough into an empty paper towel roll that I slit open for ease of transferring to refrigerator and it helps the dough retain its cylindrical shape)
Slice into 1/4inch slices
Store in airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.

Yield: 3 Dozen

You know how you get that craving for something sweet but you don’t want to undo all your good work by loading up on empty carbs and way too much sugar ie: Cookie Monster Time! I decided to give Low Carb Sweets another look. And I will continue to do so for the rest of January 2013 just to see what I come up with and determine whether or not LC will fill the void.

I entered Low Carb High Protein cookie recipes into google and had a browse through the first few hits. I liked the look of Healthy No Bake Protein Cookies because I almost always have protein powder on hand these days, love peanut butter and always have dried cranberries, dates, raisins and a variety of nuts on hand.

How I made them:

6 ounces Peanut Butter
2 ounces Tahini Paste
1/3 cup Splenda Brown Sugar
1 1/2 Scoops Vega One Protein Powder
1/4 cup chopped Dates
1/4 cup dried Cranberries
1/4 cup Raisins
1/2 cup Sliced Blanched Almonds
Fine Coconut  – about 1 cup

Melt the peanut butter and tahini paste over low heat until melted, stirring constantly to discourage scorching and eliminating all lumps.
Remove from heat and stir in protein powder and Splenda brown sugar.
Stir in dates, cranberries, raisins and sliced almonds until well incorporated.
Use a #2 Pampered Chef scoop to scoop portion dough into even sized balls, roll between your hands to attain even form then drop into coconut and roll around to coat.

Yield: About 24 cookies

What I would do different next time:
I just happen to have Splenda Brown Sugar on hand…I almost threw it away but considering how much I paid for it, I thought I better use it up. When the Splenda BS is gone I will use Honey, but not the cup stated in the original recipe; I will probably use 1/3 of a cup.
I will make them with all Peanut Butter; I have Tahini Paste in the pantry for when I make hummus but I don’t make it that often and hummus doesn’t call for much of it! A shame to have the Tahini Paste going stale in the pantry so this was a good opportunity to unload a bit of it.
I will add a splash of vanilla.
I will grind the almonds rather than using sliced…sliced almonds made the rolling process too difficult.
My dear husband says the only thing I should do different next time is to dip them in Chocolate!