Kids in the Kitchen – Week 2: Energy Bites

Is this everyone’s busy season, or just mine? As summer has ended, my life has gone into complete chaos mode! My calendar has seen an explosion of red appointments, all deliverables at work are all on fire, and everyone’s birthday is this month (darn you, NYE). I suppose back to school means back to busy, and ‘tis the season. What I need is more energy, but I’m not a huge fan of over-caffeinating until I crash and burn (and this also doesn't work well for kids). So to Pinterest I turn for a healthy, energizing snack to get me through the days and to present to the kids at cooking club, and Pinterest did not disappoint.

Enter delicious, nutritious, no-bake energy bites. These are a big winner on taste and energy, but beware: they leave quite a mess. When I think messy, I think perfect for kids; however, this group of kids I’m teaching is a special brand, because they inexplicably do NOT like messes. If I thought the gooey-banana reaction from last week was bad, I had another thing coming. So once again, if your kids fall into this category, you might want to invest in some food preparation gloves.

Unlike the fruit snakes, this is a one-bowl recipe, so we all sat in a circle and took turns filling measuring cups and pouring in ingredients. Trying to incorporate reusable skills when I can, I taught the kids how to level off the oatmeal, coconut, and flaxseed in measuring cups using a plastic knife. This is where the mess began. In anticipation of this, I lined the table with parchment paper, which helped only marginally.

 Next came the sticky substances, which was also the point when the kids went crazy. Apparently, honey, sunflower seed butter*, and vanilla extract are “totally gross,” and as soon as we opened them, a chorus of “Ewws” drowned out all instructions I attempted to provide. Multiple hand-washing trips promptly accompanied any physical contact they had with these “disgusting” ingredients. In fact, the only ingredient the kids didn't make a fuss about was (no surprise) the chocolate chips.

After we mixed everything together, made 4 trips to the bathroom to wash 24 hands, and rolled out fresh parchment, I dished out large spoonfuls of the mixture to each child, and they rolled it into small balls. Each of my 12 kids ended up with at least 3 energy bites, and some many more, depending on how small they rolled the balls. When it was time to eat, the kids completely changed their tune and loved every bite. Many took their extras home so they could have them for an energizing snack the next day.

No-Bake Energy Bites (Adopted from another blog)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dry oatmeal

• 2/3 cup toasted coconut

• 1/2 cup peanut butter or sunflower seed butter*

• 1/2 cup ground flaxseed

• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

• 1/3 cup honey

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions: 

1.  Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. 
2.  Roll mixture into balls. Yields about 3 dozen.

*Note: One of my kids has a peanut allergy, so we used sunflower seed butter from Trader Joe’s instead of peanut butter; it was a littler messier, but it tasted great and bound the ingredients together just as well as peanut butter would.

Bon Appetit!
         Victoria