Foodie Resolution Week #11 of 52: No Bake Energy Bites

Sometimes I make simple things way too difficult.

This would be one of those cases. I have an obsession with using up things in the cupboard. Maybe I have a slight case of OCD because I just hate seeing almost finished containers of anything. We had barely 1 cup of almonds left in a large bag and I figured I'd use those almonds, make a quick almond butter and use that in the recipe. Never mind that it called for peanut butter... of which I have an enormous jar of Whole Foods PB in the fridge. 

Yeah. Except, less than a cup of almonds isn't enough to make the butter, turns out. Instead, they were blended until fine and then pushed away from the blade in my Blendtec. Note to self (and you all). If you want to make nut butters, go for around 2 cups of nuts. Angry fist.

I had to buy oats because I only buy steel cut and this recipe called for rolled oats. I chose easy oats just in case I hated these bites and needed an alternative to finishing the enormous container. I didn't have regular unsweetened coconut, but I did have a bag of sweetened in my bakery cabinet that worked just fine to both toast and taste in this recipe. In fact, I love this use for the rest of the sweetened coconut I have. Must. finish. that. bag. of. coconut. immediately.

Anyway, the story with this recipe is that you put all the ingredients in a bowl, stir, roll into balls and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. That's it. 

After that nut butter debacle that finally had me scrounging for peanuts to add to the almond butter that wouldn't blend in my blender, I was over this recipe. I stuck them in the fridge and came back to check on them. I ate one. Then I ate another. They were like crack.

I nearly forgot the trouble they caused me. It's all her fault. She made them first and raved about them. She even told me to make a double batch and I didn't listen. What a fool.

{Recipe}

In other food news... we were waiting at O'Hare airport baggage claim around 11 p.m. the other night (where our bag never showed up, but that's another story) and I went over to Starbucks to grab a quick sandwich because I hadn't eaten dinner yet. No veggie options, of course. Instead, I grabbed a salad. I think it was called Southwest Chickpea Salad and the ingredients were super simple from what I can remember: chickpeas, red onion, tomato, garlic, salt, pepper and lime. I'm just guessing on some of those. There was like 1.5 grams of fat in the whole salad. I'm kicking myself for not taking a photo, but needless to say, it was delicious and I've been thinking about it ever since! If any of you find one at your local 'Bucks, can you take a picture for me? I'm going to try and re-create it myself. I called the local store and they told me they are trial salads and may not make it to all Starbucks or ever again for that matter.