Healthy Evening Snacks – Easy No-Bake Granola Energy Balls

Do you suddenly find yourself craving junk food in the evening? Or maybe if you’re up late – reaching for anything you can find in your fridge? 9 times out of 10 you will calm these cravings with something totally unhealthy and end up regretting it instantly.  I’ve been a victim of unhealthy munching myself, especially in the evening and sometimes late at night while working on my blog.  Despite focusing on healthy meals through the day, I ended up munching on fried snacks or chips, partly because I did not have any other readily available alternative.

In my quest for healthy evening snacks, I started purchasing energy/protein bars from the market. Although it was healthier than my regular snack choices, it was still processed and utterly expensive. My husband came to my rescue and asked- “Why don’t we make these granola bars at home?”. We then started experimenting with a few recipes and finally found the one which was nutritious, filling and very easy to make. Most of the other recipes we found online used expensive baking equipment, which we did not want to spend on, and neither did we have the space in our house.

So here is our version of Easy No-bake granola energy balls (not bars), which you can easily make at home for healthy munching.

Ingredients Required

 

1. 2 cups of rolled oats
2. 1 cup of Rice puffs
3. 8-10 seedless dates (1 cup full)
4. ½ cup of almonds
5. 1 cup of seed mixture (we use sesame, flax & pumpkin) – can be mixture of any seeds you like (3-4 types)
6. Dried cranberries- 1 cup
7. Peanut Butter- 1 Tablespoon
8. 1 tablespoon of Organic honey
9. Salt (1 pinch)

Preparation of Ingredients

Light Roasting

1. Use a flat-based pan and on low flame, roast the following ingredients (1 at a time). Keep in mind not to burn any of the ingredients. Only lightly roast for 1-2 minutes and keep stirring.
   1. Rolled Oats
   2. Rice Puffs
   3. Almonds (after chopping into small pieces)
   4. Seeds Mixture – only if using the non-roasted kind
2. Put all the above into one big bowl and mix together well

Preparing the Dates

1. Take 8-10 seedless dates and put in blender/mixer-grinder
2. Add ½ cup of water
3. Start the blender/mixer-grinder and continue till all the dates have been blended and reach a thick consistency
4. If you are not able to blend dates properly, add another ½ cup of water and repeat
5. You should get a consistency like the one in the picture here
6. Take all of this out of the blender and keep aside for later

Preparing the Honey and Peanut Butter

1. On the same pan used for roasting, put the honey and peanut butter on low flame
2. We do want to cook these ingredients but only melt them and mix them together
3. This should happen within a minute
4. Take this mixture and pour it onto the mixture of ingredients in the bowl you have used

Putting it all together

1. In the big bowl, add the cup of dried cranberries
2. Mix all the ingredients well together using a spoon
3. Add a pinch of salt
4. To this, add the blended dates
5. Now we need to mix all of this together. You won’t be able to use a spoon as the dates are very sticky. Use your hands and mix all the ingredients well together. If the mixture is hot, wait for five minutes before doing this step

The Finish

1. Using the mixture created, starting making the balls with your hands by taking small chunks
2. Make sure you do not overload any balls with too many cranberries, as it will become too sweet. Have 1-2 cranberries in each energy ball
3. Keep the balls aside on a large plate separate from each other so that they don’t stick together
4. Once done with all of the mixture, place your creation in the fridge for the energy balls to solidify for 2-3 hours
5. Store in fridge and the energy balls should be good for 2 weeks

Hope you try this recipe and it solves the issue of unhealthy evening snacking for you. Let me know your experiences and if you have a craving-solving recipe of your own in the comments below.

If you liked this post and are looking to upgrade to a healthier lifestyle, you will definitely like – 6 Easy Ways to add Superfoods to your diet

You can also check out other home-made granola bars recipes by – Pick Up Limes, Aarti Madan or The Domestic Geek

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