Chocolate Peanut Butter Granola Bites

As much as I love Luna Bars and energy bars in general, they are not exactly cheap and they are often filled with ingredients I can't pronounce. And, I can never find one with all the ingredients I want. So, today, I finally got around to making my own granola energy bars (or bites) that include all the stuff I crave on a daily basis: chcolate, peanut butter, oats, and coffee.

Introducing Chocolate Peanut Butter Granola Bites:

Ingredients

3 cups of rolled oats

1/2 cup of pitted dates
1/4 cup of honey
1/2 cup of unsalted, creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup of espresso

1/2 cup of ground walnuts

1/4 cup of chocolate protein powder

1/4 cup of Navitas cacao bits

2 tbsp of hemp seed

2 tbsp of ground flaxseed

Directions

Measure and pour 3 cups of rolled oats into a pot. Use a food processor or magic bullet to blend 5 or 6 pitted dates until smooth. Use 1 tbsp or so of water if necessary. Depending on size of pitted dates, this will result in 1/2 cup of date paste. Add date paste, honey, peanut butter, and espresso into the pot with the rolled oats. Stir and cook for about 5 minutes. Combine chocolate protein powder, hemp seed, and ground flaxseed into the pot and continue stirring until all the ingredients are mixed well. Add cacao bits when the granola bites have reached the desired consistancy.

Roll granola dough into the size of a ball, about 1 inch in diameter. Or transfer dough onto parchment/wax paper and cut into squares.

I couldn't resist eating the dough as I was rolling them into ball-shaped form, so I was only able to make 26 granola bites. But, I'm guessing you can make a total of 30 granola bites if you have enough self control =)