Pre-Workout Snacks

Reposted from former blog, Just Add Sparkles.

Sooo . . . . it's the holidays. They are coming. Which means here comes the breads, pies, cookies, and every other baked good known to man. Watch out they'll be coming for you, begging you to just take one bite. Because they know once you have one bite, you'll end up eating the whole platter. Or wait, maybe that's just me. And maybe you're thinking I'm crazy because I'm talking about baked goods taunting me. But they do. ALL THE TIME.

I have the biggest sweet tooth. Seriously. Aaron, my husband, can just turn down a bowl of ice cream because he doesn't feel like having it and I'm thinking "how can you not feel like ice cream?" I always feel like having ice cream. ALWAYS. I've "sort of" developed the will-power to turn down ice cream but it's never because I don't want it - it's because I know I shouldn't have it and usually that doesn't stop me.

My point is that I'm going to be extra careful this holiday season with the amount of goodies I consume. With a sweet tooth like mine sometimes I get that craving and if we have sugar cookies on the counter that our neighbor brought over to spread their holiday cheer, that combination couldn't be very dangerous. 

So I have these little guys that I find handy to fill that craving plus they're SUPER good as a pre-workout snack because they're filled with mucho protein. They're my peanut butter protein balls. (Plus they actually motivate me to workout, "Well, if I eat one of these they're technically a pre-workout snack, so I have to go work out now.")

Here's how you make them. 

PEANUT BUTTER PROTEIN BALLS

• 1/3 cup natural peanut butter

• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 scoop chocolate or vanilla whey protein powder
• 3 tablespoons ground flaxseed (that'll keep you regular)
• 3 tablespoons dark chocolate chips (I did a mix of milk and white chocolate chips. I know it's not as good for you as dark chocolate but hey, I do what I want.)

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Roll into 10 balls (about one heaping tablespoon per serving).

Refrigerate to firm up balls, overnight for best results. Makes 10 balls. I doubled the recipe to make about 20 balls.

Hope you enjoy this little not-so-guilty pleasure!