My son asked for an English muffin with peanut butter for breakfast.  He still prefers Jif.  And when it’s a food with straight up PB, like the English muffin or apples and peanut butter, I’ve been letting it slide.  But when there’s peanut butter as an ingredient IN something, like protein balls, or a smoothie, he gets the real deal instead.  And he’s none the wiser.

Early in our marriage, Steve declared Jif to be the Official Peanut Butter of The Sturm Household.  I doubted he could tell the difference between Jif and Skippy (which is what I had been eating), so I gave him a blind taste test: each kind (plus a generic store brand) spread on a saltine cracker, palate cleansed with milk in between.  He picked Jif every time.  Fine.  We were a Jif Household for 20 years.

I started buying all-natural, peanuts-and-salt-only peanut butter about two years ago.  It didn’t take long before I was fully sold on the taste.  And take a look at the labels (or my PB post) before you buy.

Today, I took a little lick of the Jif I was spreading on my son’s English muffin.  I realized it not only tastes really weird to me, but it’s probably time to help The Boys in my house make the transition too.

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Basic, No Bake Peanut Butter Protein Balls

We like to roll these in cinnamon or crushed, unsweetened coconut.  Sometimes we dip them in melted dark chocolate.  Freeze the balls on a tray in a single layer to firm them up before transfering to airtight storage container.  We prefer to eat them chilled, so we store these snacks in a Mason jar in the fridge.

Author Sue

Ingredients

• 1 cup rolled oats (not quick oats)
• 1/2 cup ground flax seed most grocery stores have this in the baking aisle
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.  Use about a tablespoon of mixture for each ball.  Rolling with your hands is probably the easiest way to do this.  Set balls on wax paper and freeze in a single layer on a cookie sheet or baking pan.  Freeze until set, about 30-40 minutes.

2. Optional mix-ins could include 1/2 cup of any of the following:  chopped raisins, dates, dried cherries, chopped nuts, mini chocolate chips.

3. If coating with chocolate:  Melt the chocolate in a microwave safe container.  Roll frozen balls in the chocolate.  The chocolate will start to firm up instantly, but put them back in the freezer for another 30 minutes to fully harden.  Store in fridge.

Recipe Notes

This recipe is adapted from the recipe on the back of Trader Joe's Organic Flaxseed Meal.