Recipe: Peanut Butter Protein Balls

This is actually from Oxygen Magazine.  The original can be found here:

http://www.oxygenmag.com/Nutrition/Articles/Peanut-Butter-Pr otein-Balls.aspx
 

Tiffani Bachus’ Peanut Butter Protein Balls

Ready in 5 minutes • Makes 14 servings

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup natural peanut butter
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 scoop chocolate whey protein powder
• 3 tbsp ground flaxseed
• 3 tbsp dark chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Mix together all ingredients. Should be the consistency of Play-Doh. Roll into 14 small balls. Refrigerate to firm them up, overnight for best results. Enjoy!

Nutrients per serving (1 ball):

Calories: 84, Total Fats: 5 g, Saturated Fat: 1 g, Trans Fat: 0 g, Cholesterol: 3 mg, Sodium: 28 mg, Total Carbohydrates: 8 g, Dietary Fiber: 1 g, Sugars: 6 g, Protein: 4 g, Iron: 0 mg
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I do a couple of adjustments. 

1) I substitute 1/2 the honey for peanut butter or with a sugar-free Caramel syrup (Davinci, Toriani, etc).  I
2) I add Cayenne Pepper to give it some 'kick'. I love cayenne with chocolate
3) Natural PB can be pretty 'wet' and I use enough protein powder to get the right consistency (Isopure Dutch Chocloate No-Carb Whey Protein isoalte). I'll add some as needed. 
4) I don't use the dark chocolate chips mostly because I have a hard time finding them at the market. 

The version I do using Smart Balance chunky PB is 67cal piece, 4g protein, 4g carb, 4g fat.  1g fiber, 50mg sodium.

These are great before a workout because I can  eat 3 (about 1 1/2oz by volume) and get 200 calories with equal carbs, and protein without eating a lot of volume. I can also drink water within 1/2 hour of eating them which is important for me at the gym.
 

They sound delicious.  Do they trigger you at all?  I am afraid that if I make them. I won't be able to stop picking at them and will end up eating all of them in one day...I've been tempted to make them, but am such a food addict that I' not sure I could control myself.....

I was thumbing through an old Atkins cookbook today and found a recipe for protein balls.  I thought it was interesting that you posted this today, right after I was reading recipes....
Their recipe did not have the calorie count, but the balls have 3 grams of carbs and 10 grams of protein each.  I'm sure it has a trillion calories per ball as well.  The recipe calls for 2 cups of Peanut butter.

The book also has a recipe for protein bars that have 9 grams of carbs and 31 grams of protein per bar.  No calorie count.  I might have to add up the calories and see how it stacks up...

I calculated the protein bar recipe and the bars were 300 calories a piece.  Not a bargain for me, but they would be good for a person at goal and exercising rigorously, even though the carbs are low, they have 31 grams of protein.


Thanks for posting this....

Is this different then the one I see them posting about on the main board?

great. thanks so much for posting this. i had another recipe but it had some oatmeal in it.   diane