No Bake Energy Balls

Do you ever have a sweet tooth or just need a little bite of something that's satisfying, healthy and gives you a little energy boost?

Sure you have.

Well look no further than this great little recipe I'm going to share with you today.

I have a busy weekend ahead and will using a lot of my energy as we will be helping my daughter move....AGAIN. more about on a later post, so first let me tell you about these little energy balls.

These little nibbles are great before or after a workout to add energy. They are just enough to satisfy you. I keep them in the fridge and grab one when I'm hungry before time to eat. It will satisfy that craving. It tells your mind you just ate a large candy bar but tells your hips that you just had a bite of oatmeal and honey.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups raw oatmeal ( I used the quick 1 minute ones)
• ½ cup peanut butter ( I used Jiff Natural low sodium. Just as good as the other)
• ¼ cup honey
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ⅓ cup mini semi sweet chocolates (optional)

Instructions

1. For best results, place oats in a food processor and process until oats are a course powder. pour into a mixing bowl.
2. Add peanut butter, honey, and vanilla to the oats. Stir until well combined. (this is the hard part)
3. Fold in chocolate chips.
4. Roll into a small ping pong sized balls (about 1 tbsp each).
5. Place in the refrigerator for 20 minutes where they will get firm. (I just put them all in a bowl. They didn't stick to each other.)

Each ball has 87 calories so don't go all crazy on them if your trying to loose weight. Other wise, eat all you want.

You can mess around with these and add other things to them such as nuts, raisins, etc...

They are sorta hard to mix up but if they are too dry, add more peanut butter. If they are too sticky, add more oats. But with this recipe, mine were perfect.

ENJOY!

Baby It's Cold Outside

Today I had a baby shower to help with. It was for my niece. This will be her second baby girl. Shes due in March. My sister in law hosted the shower at her home and me and my daughter along with other family members, helped with the food and pickups. The theme she wanted was "baby its cold outside" while using pink and gold for the colors. 

It was originally scheduled for last week but due to the snow, we figured it would be best to reschedule it for today. I think the snow would have made the theme more appealing though. 

Today it was in the 60s and beautiful outside. 

I decided to make little smokies in the crock pot. I mean, arent those at every shower? Ha.

I made them by adding equal parts of grape jelly, mustard and BBQ sauce then let them cook for a couple hours before serving. They are always a hit.

I have to brag a bit on the gift my daughter made for the baby. Now, my girl loves cupcakes so this fit her creativness well. She used little onesies and newborn socks and created these adorable useable cupcakes.

  

 

 

Speaking of cupcakes, whoever made the real things, they were delicious!

They were pink with snowflakes and sprinkles.

 

I decided to make home made butter mints. I made these before the shower was rescheduled so they were in my house for a week screaming at me everytime I walked by them. It was hard not to snatch one or two but I did good at ignoring the notion.

 

I used moms recipe which consist of powdered sugar, corn syrup, Butter , mint flavoring and a drop of red. I used a fondant cutter as a press to look like bows stamped in the center. They turned out sort of ugly but what was done was done. I made too many to start over. No one seemed to care what they looked like.

I also made these fun little rice crispy squares dipped in pink chocolate melts and sprinkled with edible gold flakes. 

 

It's hard to see the gold flakes in the photo but I tried to get a quick shot before everyone started grabbing them.

I cheated on these though. I used premade rice crispy treats and cut each one in half. No one noticed.  

 

The shower turned out nice as it was just a drop in which meant no goofy games and staring contest. 

She liked her gifts she received. Remember the crocheted set I made? It got a lot of ohhhs and ahhhhs.

 

I decided to make a white pair of boots to go with the set. The pink ones I made first just didnt look right to me so I did a do over in white. 

Its been a long day and im tired. I got the call from my daughter that shes back home safe so now Im calling it a night.