Chocolate Peanut Butter Power Balls

March 7, 2016 by Rebecca @ Strength and Sunshine 176 Comments

Get your chocolate and peanut butter fix with these healthy, gluten-free, vegan, and grain-free Chocolate Peanut Butter Power Balls! A yummy protein-packed snack recipe for all ages and bite sizes!

It’s time for a celebration! A CEREAL celebration! Today, March 5th, is National Cereal Day! If you’re ready this in the morning (like 6:30am) I’m currently fulfilling the cereal day prophecy and eating a massive bowl as we “speak”! You KNOW I simply adore my cereal and I’ve never let Celiac Disease get in the way. I may not be able to eat all my old favorites, but there are some amazing specialty cereals out there I don’t think I ever would have discovered had I not been diagnosed. There is a cold cereal option for everyone! While you know I’m also the granola queen, cereal is something so different in my eyes.

Now what the heck does cereal have to do with bites? Weren’t you expecting a granola/cereal recipe? Well I almost posted some granola, but like I said above, granola and cereal are like paternal twins. Similar, but so different. These bites, or “balls”, contain cereal, but not just any cereal! BEAN cereal! Besides knowing that I love cereal and granola, you also know that I love my beans! So combining them seems like a pretty obvious way for me to fall in love. You could say I’m in “love” with Love Grown Foods! The first cereal of theirs I ever tried was the original Power O’s, then the chocolate Power O’s (used here!), and then the chocolate Mighty Flakes! (Side note: when I make my porridge bowls for breakfast I do half Love Grown Super Oats half Quinoa Flakes!) The commonality between all the Love Grown cereals though, is BEANS! If you want protein for breakfast, skip the nasty eggs, and eat some beans!

Any what goes better than a cereal made with navy beans, lentils, and chickpeas? More legumes! And by that I mean peanuts! We all love this **cough, cough** “bean” butter and we also all love chocolate! (Right!?) So let’s combine them all and make the ultimate protein-packed beanful chocolate balls! I know, you’re drooling already 😉

But let’s take a step back and start a trip down memory lane. Just the other day, I was speaking to my mom about the cereals we missed. For her, it was Life cereal. I too, was very fond of that cereal. It was one of the cereals my grandparents always had. When we would visit, we would never take the journey back home until my brother and I both have a plastic cup full of either dry Life cereal or Cheerios. Childhood nostalgia at it’s best!

The one(s) I really miss though, I have a few. Frosted Flakes, the Original Honey Bunches of Oats, Frosted Mini Wheats (bahahaha! GLUTEN!), and finally, my number one, Cap’n Crunch! O Cereal Gods, if you ever make that one safe and gluten-free, I will buy every box and eat cereal for all my meals. I’m talking the original Crunch Berry one. I can still remember that taste! Perhaps the biggest nutrition bomb there is, but I don’t care at all! If you look at the ingredients, the first 4 are corn flour, sugar, oat flour, and brown sugar (meaning sugar is actually #1), and then a bunch of chemicals. But if I were able to eat that even just one more time, I would go ALL in! #BestCerealEver!

It was totally one of those crunchy cereals that cut up the roof of your mouth too! (That’s the sign of a quality crunchy, not soggy, cereal!) I have vivid memories of eating a huge bowl of that cereal on the couch, watching Nickelodeon before I would have to go to school. Haha, I have some of the best cereal memories! I’ve always been a cereal fiend though. There was a great span of years where the only breakfast I ate, everyday, was cereal. I would go through boxes and boxes! Same as if you don’t like chocolate chip cookies, if you don’t like cereal…there must be a problem there (I’m guessing it was from a deprived childhood!).

Chocolate Peanut Butter Power Balls