Energy Balls

I polished off my batch of power cookies recently, so I decided to try my hand at something new: The Whitewater Cooks at Home Energy Balls.  These are absolutely delicious!  They're a wee bit crumbly when you eat them, but they don't fall apart when you're transporting them (I popped one in the back pocket of my jersey and it was still a solid ball an hour and a bit later).  Definitely a good alternative if you're tired of power cookies.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds, toasted
• 1/2 cup sesame seeds, toasted
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 3 heaping tablespoons of cocoa powder
• 4 heaping tablespoons of peanut butter
• About a three second squirt/drizzle of honey
• Enough coconut toasted for coating

Place all of the dry ingredients into a large bowl and mix (with your hands) to combine.  Add the wet ingredients, take off your rings, roll up your sleeves and smoosh and mix all of the ingredients together with your hands.  This is not a clean process so be ready to get good and dirty.  Form the mixture into approximately 10 balls (about the size of 1.5-2 shelled walnuts).  Roll the balls in the toasted coconut to coat, and place in freezable containers.  Will keep in the freezer for a couple of months.

Things to note: (1) Toast the sesame seeds and sunflower seeds separately.  They take different amounts of time to toast and the sunflower seeds will "float" on the sesame seeds since they're bigger.  (2) The coconut will toast very quickly (within a minute), especially if your pan is already hot.  So, keep a close eye on it.

Enjoy!

Energy balls, ready for consumption!