The netball representative carnivals are high intensity. They involve 7-8 half games in one day, preparing the girls for the big finale that is the 3-day State Netball Championships!

The players aren’t really that hungry throughout the day, which is natural as they’re keeping their energy for playing, not digesting, but they still need to eat and drink to help prevent fatigue, keep them focused and keep their energy steady.

In our Under 13’s age group, at the coaches request (yay!), all the parents pitch in to make sure there is an array of healthy snacks and food for the girls to eat between games.

Small protein and carb snacks are ideal which was how these Cookie Dough Energy Balls were born. As well as the fact my daughter’s main motivation to bake weekly is the allure of eating the leftover batter in the bowl at the end!

The combination of ingredients provide the perfect boost for the girls, all wrapped up in delicious, easy-to- eat little bites.

I have made a few batches of this since I created the recipe a couple of weeks ago and I can’t keep my kids hands off them (or mine!).

While most of us won’t be able to pack these in our school lunchboxes due to the nuts, my Easy Wholefood Lunchboxes recipe ebook is filled with nut free sweet and savoury recipes, like Apricot, Orange and Coconut Bliss Balls and Chocolate Tahini Oat Bites …

Many of the ingredients in this recipe can be sourced from my one-stop-favourite, organic wholefoods online store, The Wholefood Collective. They go to great lengths to ensure everything they source is amazing quality, they stock all my favorite products and I don’t even have to leave the house! Oh and the cherry on the cake is they donate profits to improve food security for vulnerable Aussies.

Here are some of the ingredients you’ll need:

Rolled oats
Desiccated coconut
White chia seeds
Almond meal
Peanut butter
Raw honey
Milk
Sea salt
Vanilla extract
Dark chocolate chips

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Cookie Dough Energy Balls

Prep Time 15 minutes

Author Brenda Janschek

Ingredients

• 1 cups rolled oats or you can just use oat flour
• 1/2 cup desiccated coconut
• 1 tablespoon white chia seeds optional
• 1 cup almond meal
• 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1/4 cup raw honey
• 1 tablespoon milk I used almond milk
• pinch sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ cup unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup mini dark-chocolate chips

Instructions

• In a food processor, grind oats, coconut and chia seeds (if using), until finely ground.
• Add peanut butter, honey, almond meal, salt, vanilla, butter and milk. Process again until it's all mixed together well.
• Stir through choc chips
• Roll tablespoons of the dough into balls, if rolling proves difficult, press into balls using the palm of your hand.
• Store in refrigerator. Can be frozen.

Notes

Time Saving Tip: Alternatively you can line a shallow square or rectangular baking tin with baking paper and press the dough into the tin, pop in freezer to set, then cut into bars.

If you’re looking for more recipe inspiration, take a look at my new recipe ebook which is getting rave reviews, Easy Wholefood Lunchboxes.

It’s packed with 40 delicious nut-free, refined sugar free sweet and savoury recipes which have all been kid-tested and approved!

If you make this recipe please do take photos and send them to me.

If you share them on instagram, remember to tag me @brendajanschek. Otherwise feel free to pm me your photos via Facebook. I get a total kick out of seeing you bring my recipes to life.

Other similar recipes you might like are Raw Cacao Balls  and Chocolate Orange Truffles

Bren x

Don’t get me wrong.

I love nothing more than a good old cooking and baking session in the kitchen when time is on my side.

But let’s face it, those times can be few and far between for us working mummas.

Which means I’m always on the lookout for short cuts in the kitchen.

When you can throw a handful of ingredients into a bowl, mix it around, roll it into balls, and stick it in the fridge, life starts to feel easier.

The inspo for these delicious balls of goodness came because my gal oh so does love ‘licking the bowl’.

Always proclaiming how much more she loves my Anzac Biscuits, before they go into the oven.

So why don’t I knock out an entire cooking step I thought, and do the raw thang using a few of our favourite ingredients?

And the No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Ball was born and they make a perfect little after-school energy snack or mama afternoon snack and when you’re in the heat of summer and it’s too hot to turn the oven on!

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No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls

Prep Time 5 minutes

Servings 15

Author Brenda Janschek

Ingredients

• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1/4 cup shredded coconut
• 1/4 cup raw honey add a little more if needed
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil melted
• 1/4 cup dark choc chips or chopped 70% dark chocolate
• pinch sea salt

Instructions

• Throw all the ingredients into a food processor, except the choc-chips, and blend up to your desired consistency. We like ours not too smooth, just with a bit of texture left.
• If consistency is too dry to roll, add more melted coconut oil
• Once blended, add dark chocolate chips and fold through
• Pop a tablespoon of the mixture into the palm of your hand and roll into a ball
• Once you have rolled all the mixture store the balls in the fridge

Notes

This recipes should make 10-15 balls depending on size.

There are more wholefood snack recipes in my Easy Wholefood Lunchboxes ebook.

If you make my recipes please take photos and send them to me, or if you share them on instagram, remember to tag me @brendajanschek. I get a total kick out of seeing you make my recipes.

Here are a couple other No Bake recipe ideas you might like – Raw Cacao Balls and these Protein Balls for Busy Women.

Bren x

These truffles are healthy, full of nutrition and oh so good!

If you’re facing a slump in your day, the citrusy orange provides a nice little zesty, zingy uplift to carry you through.

These truffles have been so handy to just grab out of the freezer when we need a little pick me up, and my son has loved having them in his school lunch box too and they make a great nutrient-dense, filling healthy snack for kids.

Enjoy this Vitamin C-packed party in a bliss ball! We’ve always got a batch of bliss balls stashed away in the fridge or freezer like these nut and date-free Raw Cacao Balls,  the Apricot, Orange, and Coconut Bliss balls from my Easy Wholefood Lunchboxes ebook, and these Chocolate Peanut Butter Bliss Balls.

Many of the ingredients in this recipe can be sourced from my one-stop-favourite, organic wholefoods online store, The Wholefood Collective. They go to great lengths to ensure everything they source is amazing quality, they stock all my favorite products and I don’t even have to leave the house! Oh, and the cherry on the cake is they donate profits to improve food security for vulnerable Aussies.

Here are some of the ingredients you’ll need:

Cacao Powder
Walnuts
Pepitas
Chia Seeds
Medjool Dates
Desiccated Coconut
Cinnamon Powder
Salt 
Maple Syrup 

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Chocolate Orange Truffles

Total Time 10 minutes

Author Brenda Janschek

Ingredients

• 2 cups desiccated coconut
• 6 medjool dates seeds removed
• 6 prunes seeds removed (provides a fudge-ier consistency and has less sugar than dates)
• 1/2 cup walnuts you can leave these out to make lunch box friendly
• 1 tablespoon chia seeds
• 2 tablespoon pepitas
• zest of 1 medium orange
• juice of half an orange
• 2 - 3 tablespoons cacao
• 1/2 teaspoon natural vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
• pinch sea salt
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup optional

Instructions

• Place the ingredients into your processor and blend at high speed until the mixture is all blended and comes together. Roll the mixture into balls, roll through desiccated coconut and place in the freezer to set

If you make this recipe please do take photos and send them to me.

If you share them on instagram, remember to tag me @brendajanschek. Otherwise feel free to pm me your photos via Facebook. I get a total kick out of seeing you bring my recipes to life. 

If you’re looking for more recipe inspiration, take a look at my new recipe ebook, Easy Wholefood Lunchboxes.

It’s packed with 40 delicious nut-free, refined sugar free sweet and savoury recipes which have all been kid-tested and approved!

Bren x

I personally adore dates which make up the base of most bliss ball recipes, but I am often asked if I have a recipe with a replacement for dates and which are nut-free and I always send across this Raw Cacao Ball recipe which uses desicatted coconut instead of dates.

With 5 simple pantry ingredients these make a quick, delicious, portable snack perfect for the school lunchbox, to throw in the gym bag, or as an afternoon snack.

Many of the ingredients in this recipe can be sourced from my one-stop-favourite, organic wholefoods online store, The Wholefood Collective. They go to great lengths to ensure everything they source is amazing quality, they stock all my favorite products and I don’t even have to leave the house! Oh and the cherry on the cake is they donate profits to improve food security for vulnerable Aussies.

Here are some of the ingredients you’ll need:

Desiccated Coconut – full of fibre and good saturated fats (the medium-chain kind) which make you feel nice and full, and coconut has anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-fungal properties.

Cacao powder – a raw and unprocessed superfood that contains iron, fibre, zinc, potassium, calcium. The anti-oxidants can help your body decrease inflammation and slow cortisol (stress hormone) production, stimulating feelings of wellbeing and euphoria. Cacao is known to lower blood pressure, adding to a feeling of calm. NB: Cacao contains theobromine which is a mood enhancer so I don’t recommend it for kids under 2yrs of age.

Coconut oil – boosts HDL cholesterol (our good cholesterol), high in anti-oxidants also, antimicrobial. Balances blood sugar and detoxifying. The fatty acids in coconut oil help the hormones get to where they want and need to go in the body, and so support the creation, processing and elimination of estrogen and progesterone, leading to hormonal balance.

Raw honey – contains beneficial compounds such as pollens, enzymes and anti-oxidants, full of vitamins and minerals.

Maple syrup – contains lots of zinc plus other vitamins and minerals which have cardiac benefits.

Vanilla powder– contains anti-oxidants, calms the nervous system, fights infections.

If you’re looking for more recipe inspiration, take a look at my recipe ebook, Easy Wholefood Lunchboxes.

It’s packed with 40 delicious nut-free, refined sugar-free sweet and savoury recipes which have all been kid-tested and approved!

Print

Raw Cacao Balls

Gluten-free, nut-free, dairy-free

Total Time 15 minutes

Author Brenda Janschek

Ingredients

• 2.5 cups desiccated coconut
• ¼ cup coconut oil
• 1/4 cup of raw honey or pure maple syrup or rice malt syrup add up to 1/3 cup of sweetener if needed
• ½ cup cacao powder
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or vanilla powder

Instructions

• Put all the ingredients into a food processor and whiz them together well (If you don’t have a food processor try mixing all by hand)
• Mixture should be wet but not soaked. If you find it too wet just add extra coconut and mix; too dry, add more oil
• Roll the mixture into tablespoons size balls with your hands then roll the ball into shredded coconut and place them on a cookie tray
• Pop them in the freezer for approx 20 mins or until they set (doesn’t take long)
• Either store in the freezer (where they become firm, but not frozen) or the fridge

Notes

If popping into lunchbox, ensure you do so with an ice-brick otherwise they will 'melt' due to the coconut oil

If you make this recipe please do take photos and send them to me.

If you share them on instagram, remember to tag me @brendajanschek. Otherwise feel free to pm me your photos via Facebook. I get a total kick out of seeing you bring my recipes to life. 

And remember, if you haven’t already, grab your copy of Easy Wholefood Lunchboxes here.

Other similar recipes you might like are Chocolate Orange Truffles and Brenda’s Breaky Balls. 

Bren x