This was an accident.

Most of these recipes are, but I really wasn’t expecting much from the mess of ingredients I threw into my trusty old ‘processer, and so I was pleasantly surprised.

Of course it is kind of ugly.

But this is a good little snack to keep on hand in your refrigerator or pack in your purse (like I did) to avoid expensive drive-thru breakfasts.

I don’t measure out the ingredients, so start small and test out the flavors and consistency to match your preferences.

Cottage cheese/Plain yogurt

Banana

Blueberries

Hemp Protein Powder (I used Living Harvest)

Milled Flaxseed

Rolled oats

Chickpeas (cooked)

Stevia (I used NuNaturals)

Blend chickpeas, banana, and cottage cheese in food processor until fairly smooth. Add hemp powder, flaxseed, blueberries, and stevia, and blend until the mixture is a hideous brownish color from the hemp and the berries. Add oats handfuls at a time, until the whole mixture is dry until to roll itself up into a large ball.

Dump the entire ugly mass into a pan (preferably covered in wax paper for easy cleanup and removal), and smoosh it down with a small rolling pin for a while.

When it is completely smooth on top, pull the wax paper up and lift the whole thing out onto a cutting board.

Slice into desired sizes. Wrap. Refrigerate. Keep in your purse for yummy snacking.

(inspired by this genius)

These protein balls are perfect for when I want something sweet, doughy, and delicious, but don’t want to sit around eating cookie dough.

My “recipe” is just a basic guideline; use whatever you like and experiment wildly

Here’s what went down:

GNC brand unflavored whey protein

GNC brand unflavored/unsweetened soy protein

Living Harvest hemp protein

Milled flaxseed

NuNaturals Stevia

Splenda

Oikos vanilla greek yogurt

Lowfat cottage cheese

Raw cashews

Raw almonds

Vanilla extract

Maple extract

Almond extract

Sea salt (any kind of salt works, but sea salt is just prettier)

All the ingredients, ready to go

I started by making cashew butter and almond butter…

…and then I set them aside (and ate chunks out of them) while mixing some other things…

…Cottage cheese, flaxseed, protein powder…

some of the ball variations…

What I ended up with!

You can see, I really didn’t use too strict of a recipe here; just played around with the ingredients on hand to see what kind of flavors would happen. And then once my mixture was a dry-enough consistency to handle I rolled it into balls.

(And these may or may not have been referred to as “doo-doo balls” by a member of my family).

I just put the protein balls in the freezer and microwave for about fifteen seconds whenever I need one.

Enjoy!

Tomatoes

Edamame

Corn

Avocado

Oregano

Salt

Lime Juice

At first I followed Heather‘s recipe fairly closely, since it was my first try with these things. Then once I had the basic idea down, I went crazy with lots of different variations:

blended (well..processed) baby spinach

hemp protein powder

chickpea flour

white bean flour

soy milk

ground flaxseed

The finished product was topped with cinnamon-Splenda and blueberries.

Good idea, Heather!