No-Bake Nut Balz

*Casie Here*

If you are allergic to nuts walk away from this post right now. This is a nut allergen's NIGHTMARE!

So, I started off with this No-Bake Energy Bites recipe here from Pinterest:

Ingredients:

For about 20 bites
1 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup peanut butter (or other nut butter)
1/3 cup honey
1 cup coconut flakes
1/2 cup ground flaxseed 
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
1 tsp. vanilla

But then I adapted it and added a bunch of extra stuff, and left out some of their stuff, in the end my completely new recipe made 99 bottles of beer on the wall ~ I mean balls on the wall! Ha! Yep, I counted ALL of them!

Here is EVERYTHING that is in MY recipe. I know, I know it is A LOT. But just throw in whatever you have on hand and like and don't put in what you don't have or can't stand. It will still be delicious!

2 cups rolled oats

1 cup rice krispies

1/2 cup flaxseed

1 TBS. PB2

1/2 cup shredded coconut

1/2 cup chopped cashews

1/2 cup chopped almonds

(AND about 1 cup of very finely chopped almonds - set aside - to roll in at the end)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup of chopped pumpkin seeds

1/2 cup chopped sunflower seeds

4 pitted dates (all I had that day or I would have used more)

10 pitted prunes (this means the pit REMOVED)

15 apricots

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup agave

1/2 cup honey

1 cup peanut butter

The food processor is your friend for this recipe. I would chop up all the nuts and seeds first if they  aren't already to a semi-fine crumble. Once those are all chopped and put into a bowl together, I would move onto the sticker parts. I put the dates, prunes and apricots in the food processor together and chopped them all up, they stick together towards the end and create one BIG sticky ball. Add that sticky ball to the bowl and try to spread it out so all the little pieces get mixed in with all the rest. Add the rest (vanilla, agave, honey and peanut butter). This is a heavy mixture and you will BUST a spatula if you try to mix this by hand. Dig out your hand mixer and spin away. Try to get everything mixed up thoroughly. Now comes the worst, most boring and tedious part. Sorry, it's true. You have to roll the balls out. ALL 99 of them. By hand. 

BLEH

Once you roll them into about 1" balls, roll the ball into the extra cup of very finely chopped almonds you set aside earlier. Then place on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. And REPEAT.

This takes FOREVER. If you had some helpers, this would go much, much faster, but I didn't at the time (or didn't want their dirty little hands all over my nut balls), so I did them myself. They are so good. The rice krispies give a fun little crunch and they are very moist. Make these for a healthy snack the whole house will love. All the work will totally be worth it!!!