Naturally Sweetened Honey Vanilla Energy Balls

Guys, I have a confession to make: I’ve been kind of overdosing on sugar lately. It all culminated in the excessive eating of cookies the other day to the point that I actually made myself sick to my stomach – how silly/sad is that?! After which I boldly declared that I am going to be breaking up with sugar. FOREVER.

 

Now, I realize that’s kind of silly to say in the middle of the Christmas season. I’m never going to be that girl who refuses to eat a treat someone made especially for me, but when it comes to the things I make in our home for us to eat? BROKEN UP.

 

FOREVER.

Except that…I just don’t know if my kids and husband would be willing to live in a home where there are zero sweet things available to eat. I feel like there would be a mutiny on my hands if I were to declare all sweet things gone forever, you know? So the way I see it is that while I break up with sugar I have to kind of slowly ween them all off the white stuff too.

 

Luckily for me I have a friend who is a beekeeper and gives me this gorgeous golden honey at an amazing price. It’s perfect for adding the littlest touch of sweetness to anything, and even better at helping hold these little balls together. To be clear you could totally press this into a baking dish and cut them into squares/rectangles, but I feel like rolling them into balls makes it more kid-friendly and helps me with portion sizes. Like I said yesterday, though, you do you – if you make bars or even one giant ball there’s no judgement from me!

 

The point is that if you’re like me and breaking up with the white stuff, dreaming about said breakup, or planning on starting in January (or heck, you have self control and just don’t eat white sugar anyway)…this is one bandwagon you’ll want to jump on!

NATURALLY SWEETENED HONEY VANILLA ENERGY BALLS

Makes about 18 balls

Ingredients:

• 2-1/2 cups rolled oats
• 3/4 cup whole raw almonds
• 10 pitted dates
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1 tablespoon chia seeds
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/3 cup dried currants

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until roughly chopped.
2. Process until the ingredients start to come together into a ball of dough.
3. Use a cookie scoop to portion out into balls, then roll until smooth balls form.
4. Store in an airtight container in the fridge until ready to serve.
5. Enjoy!