As you may have noticed, I adore protein balls. They’re easy to whip up, and I always have at least one kind (sometimes two!) in my fridge to help get my day off to a good start.
For whatever reason, I’m not really in the mood for breakfast when I first get up in the morning. Cereal? Meh. Oatmeal? No thanks.
Protein balls always sound like a good idea, though, even when nothing else does. A couple of those little guys give me the energy I need to get one child after another off to school, then sit down to a proper breakfast (Hello, Overnight Steel Cut Oats. May I introduce you to some blueberries?).
Protein balls are also great for:
- Topping the kids off after a light meal
- Tiding us over if we need to dash out the door near lunchtime
- Having something healthy, affordable, and wonderfully portable to eat when we’re traveling
- Powering up before a workout, or refueling afterward
Time to Mix Things Up
I love my chocolaty Peanut Butter Protein Balls and their maple-infused Oatmeal Protein Ball cousins, but I recently found myself wanting to mix things up a little. I yearned for something that still offered satisfying, protein-rich yumminess, but with a bright, fruity flavor. Enter Cranberry Protein Balls!
I tried (and tweaked) several different recipes in my quest to create a version I really liked. One that wasn’t too crumbly, and showcased the dried cranberries’ delightful tanginess. In short, I wanted something sweet-yet-tart that felt like I was eating oatmeal craisin cookie dough for breakfast. Sounds dreamy, right?
Making that dream a reality was a lot harder than I expected. Too much peanut butter overpowered the cranberries’ flavor. If I cut back on the PB, the protein balls seemed gritty and didn’t hold together well. I tried almond butter as a mild-flavored alternative, but it didn’t play nice with the other flavors. What to do???
Somewhere along the line, walnuts came to my rescue. I discovered that if I turned my food processor loose on them while I got out the other ingredients, I ended up with walnut butter that acted as a perfect binder without adding a noticeable flavor. Walnuts also provide lots of iron, fiber, vitamin E, and more healthy omega-3 fat than any other nut. Thank you, walnuts!
Whatever You Do, Don’t . . .
OK, so we’ve established that Cranberry Protein Balls are packed with protein (obviously) and lots of other good stuff. They’re also really handy (or in my case, essential) to have chilling in your fridge at any given moment. Before you rush off to make a batch of these babies, I want to share a tip that really makes or breaks this recipe: Don’t put all the cranberries in the food processor at once.
Toss half of them in with everything else to add nice flavor to the dough, then give the rest of the berries a few quick pulses at the very end. You don’t want all those little guys to just disappear into the dough. Half the fun of this recipe is seeing those little rubies in the rough peeking out at you here and there, promising bright bursts of fruity flavor in every bite.
Enjoy!
- ⅓ cup walnuts
- 1 cup oats
- ¼ cup ground flaxseed
- ¼ cup peanut butter
- ¼ cup maple syrup (or honey)
- Dash cinnamon
- Dash salt
- ½ cup craisins, divided
- Place walnuts in food processor, and process them while you’re getting out the other ingredients.
- Add remaining ingredients, reserving ¼ cup of the craisins. Process until well combined. Dough will be a bit crumbly; that’s OK.
- Taste the dough. If it seems a little bland, add another dash of salt and process again. Once you like the flavor of the dough, add the remaining craisins and pulse a few times to stir them in and roughly chop them.
- Place a heaping tablespoon of dough in the palm of your hand, then squeeze it into a ball. Repeat with the rest of the dough. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.
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I just made these and they are SO good. I quadrupled the recipe and froze them, but I’m sure my kids will have them all eaten in a week.
I’m so glad you loved them. They’re one of my favorites.