I was searching for a recipe for “red velvet oatmeal” when I came across a blog for Red Velvet Energy Bites at Namely Marly that got me intrigued. I’m a sucker for red velvet anything so I thought I would try to recreate the energy bites myself. I always like to source recipes and make sure I’m using the best one or combining the best of the best. Could you believe there are very few recipes for red velvet energy bites/balls/bars floating around the internet? Most of the other ones I found contain protein powder (meh) instead of real ingredients, which was not what I was looking for. So I decided to forge ahead using Marly’s recipe and tweaking it just a bit.
ingredients.
- ½ large beet, roasted and pureed in its juice
- 3 T. almond butter
- ¼ c. dark brown sugar
- 1 c. rolled oats
- ½ c. almond meal
- ¼ c. hemp seeds
- ½ c. ground flaxseed
- ½ c. unsweetened shredded coconut
- 2 t. cacao powder
- ¾ c. mini chocolate chips (use non-dairy for vegan)
- ½ c. cacao nibs
- 1 oz dried goji berries
directions.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix together the pureed beet, almond butter, cacao powder and dark brown sugar until mixed thoroughly.
- Add in the almond meal, rolled oats, seeds and coconut and stir until completely incorporated.
- Lastly, add in the cacoa nibs, chocolate chips and goji berries and stir to combine.
- Press dough down with wax paper and cover until thoroughly chilled. I chilled mine overnight but an hour or two will probably do.
- Roll into balls. I got 23 balls approximately 1.2 ounces a piece.
- Store in a sealed container in the fridge.
I wanted something small to snack on when I wake up in the morning before my morning bowl of oats. I don’t wake up hungry but find that I get hungry in between the time that I wake up, get ready for work and get to work (6 am). I don’t like to eat breakfast that early in the morning so I thought a small snack would help keep my hunger at bay until I can eat my breakfast at a decent hour (say 7 or 8 am).
Marly’s recipe does not contain sugar but contains ingredients that have more sugar (a larger amount of chocolate chips and possibly the coconut – the sweetness isn’t specified in the recipe). I tried making this recipe without sugar thinking the beets were sweet enough but … they weren’t. You can try omitting the sugar if you’d like, but I think the 1/4 cup of brown sugar doesn’t do much damage to the recipe, health-wise anyway. You could use something healthier in place of the brown sugar, like coconut sugar (which I forgot I have!), if you so choose.
Based on the 23 balls yielded in this recipe, each ball contains approximately 160 calories, 4 grams of protein, 3 grams of fiber and 14 grams of carbohydrates (if you’re counting that).
I fed one to my coworker today and she said she loved it even though she hates beets. She said you can’t taste the beet taste at all and I have to say I agree. These cookie dough bites are perfectly sweet and great for that stretch of time in between (or before!) meals. My for coworker even thinks eating one helped stave off a headache!
Food Snob 