Granola Bites, or the Muffin Man

This post is part of our June Top 5! Check out the rest of the best here

I have been seeing a lot of different recipes for energy bites, granola bites, or whatever you'd like to call them, circulating on Pinterest. I'm kind of a skeptical person when it comes to someone saying a recipe is super easy and it's good and it's good for you. But I finally broke down and tried making these.

My kids love them. I love them. My husband loves them. I'm excited to have found something yummy that will fit in the cookie category for this summer, but without heating the house up so much by baking.

It was so funny, when I got them out to share with the kids, Miss Magoo was excited to try the Granola Bites. Little Man took one look at them and said, "The Muffin Man!" I have no idea why, but that's what he has named them. He will go to the fridge and ask me for the Muffin Man, and start giggling at how funny he is!

I looked at several different recipes, and put them together using the ingredients I had on hand.
So, because I like to give credit where it's due, here are the recipes I looked at:
Granola Bar Bites
Raw Cookie Dough Bites
No-Bake Energy Bites

The Granola Bar Bites and the No-Bake Energy Bites were basically the same recipe. The Raw Cookie Dough Bites sounded good, although a bit more work, but they contain agave, and after a lot of the information I've read about agave I've chosen to steer clear of it.
So here's what I came up with:

Granola Bites
1 cup old-fashioned oats (or you can use quick oats-- I just figured since I was blending them it wouldn't matter)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup flax seed
1 cup coconut
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup chocolate chips (the other recipes call for mini chocolate chips, but I used regular and thought they turned out fine)

1. Measure oats, salt, cinnamon, and flax seed in a food processor. Pulse until combined. (If you don't have a food processor, just mix the ingredients together in a bowl-- I just used the food processor because I wanted these to turn out less chunky.)
2. Add coconut, peanut butter, and honey, and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips.
3. Put in the fridge for 30 minutes. Then roll into small balls (I used a small ice cream scoop, then rolled them between my palms).
4. Store in the fridge in an air-tight container for up to a week.

I can't wait to try these again- they were really good. I'm thinking I might try using Craisins or chopped dried fruit in place of the chocolate chips to make them even healthier. These seem like you could change up a lot of the ingredients to make them more of what you and your family like- and I love changing recipes up!

Have you tried making any of these types of recipes? If so, what have you found that was good, and what have you changed in the recipes?

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