Peanut Butter Balls Recipe

-posted by Jayne

Today I share a simple recipe that is fun for kids to put together, and a nice little after school treat.  It's heavy on peanut butter, but you're sneaking in some protein via beans mashed together with all the decadent peanut butter and honey goodness.  Mason and I whipped it up in about 15 mins, and we chose to use our food processor to bring everything together quickly.

Ingredients:  

1 can (15 oz) Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed

1/3 cup honey

1 TB vanilla

1 1/4 cups peanut butter

1 1/2 cups oats (I used old-fashioned oats)

Directions:

1.  Combine beans, peanut butter, honey, and vanilla in a food processor.  Pulse until smooth and creamy.  

2.  Add oats.  You can pulse this in the food processor if your food processor is big enough.  If not, simply mix them together in a bowl.  

3.  Using your fingers, shape mixture into balls.

4.  Store in the refrigerator.  We chose to freeze the majority of them, pulling one or two of them out to enjoy each day.

Makes approximately 50 peanut butter balls.

Recipe adapted from Iowa State University Extension Calendar, www.extension.iastate.edu/foodsavings