Shellie’s Salted Caramel Protein Balls

Welcome back to the All Things Southern kitchen. We’re making protein balls. My daughter aka Miss Kitchen Belleicious—look her up! Was the first to turn me onto protein balls. And honestly, although I enjoy them at her house, they usually fall off my radar once I get home. At least they used to, but not anymore. I’ve been experimenting with them, lately. I just whipped up a batch the beloved farmer is exceptionally pleased with and I thought I’d share them with y’all. Now, the basic ingredients for protein bars are oats, some type of nut butter, (I like regular old peanut butter) and a sticky something like honey, or syrup. For these, I wanted to try some Salted Caramel flavoring syrup I had on hand. The man and I love salted caramel anything. And yes, it’s for flavoring coffee, but I do declare, it plays well with protein balls, too.

Here’s my short recipe for super protein bars you can mix up without an oven.

Shellie’s Salted Caramel Protein Balls

1 and 1/2 cup quick oats
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup salted caramel flavoring syrup
1 cup dark chocolate chips
2 tablespoons flaxseed
2 tablespoons chia seeds
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

I mix my dry ingredients, then I fold in the peanut butter. Add the flavoring syrup on the last step, mix well, and refrigerate. You’ll have a sorta sticky mix, similar to cookie dough. Give it 30 minutes or so and you can form it into balls. These keep a couple weeks in the fridge and are perfect for an afternoon snack with coffee or a pick-me-up to send to the field with your fellow. You can also experiment with other adds like dried fruit or coconut. I’ve roughly calculated the calories on mine. I get about 20 out of this recipe, which comes to about 130 calories. Translation? This isn’t diet food, but it’s way healthier than processed snacks like granola bars. Moderation, dieters. That’s the ticket!