Peanut butter protein balls

These high protein peanut butter protein balls are filled with chocolate chips and ready in 15 minutes.

It’s been exactly 56 days since we’ve talked about balls on here. That is far too long. Today, we shall remedy that. But first, let’s do it up What I Ate Wednesday style.

I started the day with some cheater protein pancakes for breakfast. Why cheater? Because I used Trader Joe’s mix as the base. This is actually what I do with pancakes 75% of the time. This protein pancake recipe is great, but grinding buckwheat on weekday mornings is not always something I’m willing to do. I don’t actually think mixes are that bad when doctored up properly. I used 1/2 cup of mix and then added the following:

2 tablespoons liquid egg whites
1/4 cup cottage cheese
1/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons vanilla protein powder
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
cinnamon
liquid stevia
vanilla extract

Definitely a little different than the milk, egg and oil the box instructions call for and a whole lot more nutritious.

Mid morning snack was whole wheat puffs (some oddity that my ghetto Asian store sells which are basically like eating air) with peanut butter and banana, lunch was leftover summer lasagna with carrots & hummus and dinner was sausage, peppers, onions and tomatoes with potato salad.

You ready for some ball talk?

In the spirit of this month’s WIAW theme “sensible snacking”, meet the peanut butter chocolate protein ball that really became a cookie (cue the womp, womp, womp sound).

Regardless of shape though, these genius creations from Janetha are delicious. I saw balls in the title, looked at the ingredient list and the baking time and when I realized they’d go from bowl to oven to my mouth in about 15 minutes total, I was in.

I followed her recipe exactly except I subbed in chocolate chips for cherries. Not a bad substitution at all if I do say so. I thought about raisins for a hot second but the chocolate won out. Shocking. I only got 9, not 13 out of the batch so these probably pack closer to 175 calories and 10 grams of protein each which is pretty impressive for a two bite ball cookie. I shoved one in my mouth right before my workout which kicked some sweaty butt yesterday so I call these a success.

Want to party with the rest of us? Check out Jenn’s link up by clicking the button below!

Pancake poll… Mix or from scratch?

Marie

Saturday 23rd of June 2012

All that food looks amazing! Really into protein recipes now that I am doing P90X and Insanity. Have been following your blog since finding you on Healthy Aperture and really like it, especially since I eat gluten-free and love healthy yummy food. Look forward to more posts :)

Leonor @FoodFaithFitness

Thursday 21st of June 2012

I am all over these balls...er.....cookies.

Rebecca

Hey, Gina! I stumbled on your site when I saw a recipe for protein pancakes on FoodGawker a while back. I saw that you were doing the Jamie Eason workouts; I'm signed up with Bodybuilding.com, too and was wondering how that workout/diet plan is working for you.

Running to the Kitchen

Hi Rebecca- I was doing Livefit and made it to about week 8 when my work and personal travel schedule got insane. I tried to stick with week 7 and 8 until I could complete them diligently (not in a hotel makeshift gym) and then intended to progress on from there. However, phase 2 workouts get insanely long (imo). It was just hard to stay motivated or cut out enough time (90 minutes+) 6 days a week and so I've kind of stopped. I'm still working out 6 days a week and using the Livefit workouts, just condensed versions of them. So instead of 7 or 8 exercises, I'll do 4-5 and supersets and then shorter HIIT cardio instead of a constant 30 mins of steady state cardio. I did see (and continue to see even though I'm modifying the workouts) a great improvement in my arms, back and legs. Stomach is the hardest part for me and I know it has a lot to do with clean eating but even with cleaning my eats up, I'm still not super impressed with that area. Hope that answers your question, feel free to email me if you want to discuss it more :)

Cinnamon @ eatpraytri

mmmmm balllls. I would totally 86 the cherries sub choc chips too. Good choice.

Katie @ Nutrition in a Peanut Shell

Wednesday 20th of June 2012

Box for me! I just personally don't think homemade pancakes taste much different (or better) than the good ol' box, but maybe that's just because I haven't found the right recipe