Looking for a quick, healthy snack made with real food ingredients? Here are 12 kid-friendly energy ball recipes made without protein powder.
Hi friends!
Let’s talk about snacks for a minute, shall we? More specifically, snacks for Squish. Because lord knows he eats a lot of them. In fact, he pretty much eats every 2 hours all day long. We’ve tried giving him bigger meals and it just doesn’t work well for us. So for now, we’re sticking with three main meals and 3-4 snacks during the day.
These aren’t giant snacks by any means, but they do occur multiple times per day, so I do my best to make sure they’re minimally processed, made with real food ingredients, and full of nutrients. Some of his favorites include:
- Sweet Potato Bites
- String cheese
- Hard boiled eggs
- Avocado or peanut butter toast
- Smoothies
- Raisins
- Popsicles (made with sweet potatoes, prunes & pb)
- Jello (made with grape juice and gelatin)
- Anything dipped in hummus
- Energy balls
I try to rotate through this list to keep him from getting bored, but if I had to name one thing I make sure to prep every single week to have on hand, it’s energy balls. He absolutely loves my Lemon Energy Balls but he’s also a fan of my no-bake mint chocolate version (i make them without the crushed peppermint when it’s not Christmas time!)
Kid-Friendly Energy Ball Recipes
I love them because it’s so easy to make a batch ahead of time and pop them in the freezer and just pull them out whenever we need a quick snack. I’ve decided that since we’re eating them weekly, it’s about time I start branching out a little bit and trying some new flavor combos. Instead of doing all the work myself, I turned to some of my blogger friends and asked them to share their favorite energy balls and bites!
Note that while a lot of energy balls are made with protein powder, for this roundup, I chose only recipes that do not include protein powder. You guys know I’m not a huge protein powder user myself (although I do use it to make my No Bake Protein Bars), but I don’t feel it’s something Squish needs to be eating at his age.
So here’s the list I came up with, including a few of my favorites from The Bean archives:
Apple Cinnamon Cookie Energy Bites via Kristine’s Kitchen Blog
Dark Chocolate & Blueberry Energy Bites via The Creative Bite
Cherry Larabar Balls via Eating Bird Food
Key Lime Pie Energy Bites via Peas and Crayons
Chocolate Coconut Pistachio Bites via Cotter Crunch
Raw Vegan Brownie Bites via Happy, Healthy Motivated
Dark Chocolate Coconut Almond Butter Energy Bites via Joyful Healthy Eats
Strawberry Cheesecake Swirl Energy Balls via The Healthy Maven
PB & J Swirl Energy Bites via Fit Foodie Finds
So if you need me, I’ll be in the kitchen working my way through this list with my little assistant. Which should we try first?!
Enjoy!
–Lindsay–
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I’m watching my niece this weekend–perfect!! These look great!
you know i am all about this. kid friendly and adult friendly! YAY!
Yum! I’m going to try a few of these for myself and a few for my three-year-old niece. She’s usually more interested in exploring rather than eating, but I have a feeling she’ll love the pb&j bites. Thanks for sharing all of these recipes!
Wow my mind is blown with all of these fabulous options! Mmmm mint-chocolate bites, I’ll take 1,000!
What a great round-up of delicious recipes. I look forward to making a few of these for my grand babes!
I’m always looking for new snack ideas for my kids since they are hungry all. the. time! These recipes look perfect and I can’t wait to try them! Thanks for including my apple cinnamon bites. 🙂
I bet my kids would love them all! what a great collection
lemon, cherry, and mint OH MY! Haha these are phenom – thanks so much for including me!
Thanks for leaving out the protein powder! When it comes to kids, they don’t need it!!
I agree!
Would you give all of these to an 11 month old? I may blend oats to make them smaller and I didn’t check them all for honey but otherwise I think these could be good for my guy. Any you’d recommend for the littler guy specifically? For some reason he will only take things I offer in ball form lately haha
Also obviously no raw nuts as he has only one tooth.
my kids love the lemon ones from my site. sometimes i add like 1/2 cup frozen wild blueberries as well.