Chocolate Cranberry Almond Oatmeal Bites

Chocolate Cranberry Almond Oatmeal Bites are bite-sized no-bake oatmeal balls that are studded with sweet chocolate chips, tart dried cranberries, and crunchy almonds.

I decided to clean out my pantry this morning.  Actually, we don't have a physical pantry with a door.  Our pantry is an open concept of built-in shelving around our refrigerator.  I love the open feel of it and having it on display for all to see sort of keeps me in check with keeping it in order.

That is, when my 2-year-old isn't tearing it apart.  For a while there we had the bottom two shelves completely empty after our little guy decided stealing the mustard, opening the cereal boxes, and rearranging the canned goods were fun games.

He's finally started to get the gist that our food on the shelves isn't there for his amusement, so we've been able to move stuff back onto the lower shelves.  He still likes rearranging things on me, and occasionally I have to reorganize so I can find things again.

So, thanks to the boy, cleaning and organizing my pantry this morning was something that needed to be done.  I have a few baskets mixed in with the food, to hold little items like spice packets, bags of sun-dried tomatoes, and dried fruit.  It was in one of these little baskets that I happened to find three open bags of chocolate chips.  THREE.  And all three bags were almost empty.  How does that even happen?  Lord knows I have no idea.

I dumped the chips into a bowl and came up with 1/2 cup of chips.  I started brainstorming what I could do with them and decided to use up some of my other open containers to help with the pantry clean out I was doing.  I also had a canister of open almonds and an open bag of dried cranberries that I needed to use up.

I remembered seeing no-bake energy balls on Pinterest, so I decided to make these little oatmeal bites to mimic the ones I'd seen.  They are sweet little bites of deliciousness and so easy to make!  I'll be serving them as little treats in my daughter's lunchbox and as after school snacks. And if I ever decide to get my butt in gear and hop on the elliptical, they'd make a great post workout protein snack.

Chocolate Cranberry Almond Oatmeal Bites

   

Yield: 20-25 balls

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1/4 cup raw almonds, chopped

Instructions

1. In a mixing bowl, combine the peanut butter and honey.  Add the oatmeal, chocolate chips, cranberries and almonds.  Use your hands to shape into 1-inch rounds and place them onto a parchment lined cookie sheet.  Refrigerate on the cookie sheet for at least one hour.  Store in the refrigerator.

Notes

• I like to roll my balls really small, no bigger than one inch in diameter, so they can be popped into your mouth in one easy bite.
• Source: Adapted from Seed at the Table.