Recipe for energy balls

I got this recipe from Oxygen magazine. Yes. I read my wife's Oxygen magazine. If you are a woman who works out (or a personal trainer), you need to ditch that Women's Health subscription right now. Another really awesome women's fitness magazine is Muscle & Fitness Hers. One of my clients introduced me to it. Awesome. Trade up to one of those mags.

But I am getting off topic.

 If you are making stuff for the holidays as I am, you might wonder what you could make for someone that won't make them fat. As a trainer, I am not interested in enabling the people around me to make bad dietary choices. To paraphrase something I read in one of the aforementioned ladies fitness magazines; Six-packs are made in the kitchen.

So man up and find your six-pack with these balls I found in a ladies magazine!

•  2 1/2 cups pitted dates
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup natural peanut butter
• 1 cup whey protein powder
• 1/4 cup unsweetened, unprocessed cocoa
• 1/4 cup ground flaxseed
• 1 tsp gropund cinnamon
• 1/2 cup ground nuts

1. In a food processor, blend dates and water. 
2. Add peanut butter and blend some more. get it really smooth. 
3. Add protein powder in 1/2 cup increments so you don't kill your food prcessor.
4. Add cocoa, flaxseed and cinnamon
5. Process some more

 One that is all goopy, put it in the refigerator for a half hour. It is for the best.

Make sure you have clean hands, then you can gather some dough about the size of a gumball (not a jawbreaker). Roll it into a ball. If the dough is too sticky you can roll the ball in protien powder or cocoa.  I found you can also oil your hands, which works nice. You can use olive oil, but if you want to be super classy, you can use walnut oil to intensify the nut flavor.

Roll the ball ball in the nuts. Almost finished.

Put your balls on a cookie sheet.

Stick the cookie sheet in the freezer for 2-4 hours.
You will want to keep your balls in the freezer to protect the shape and texture.

eat 2 balls preworkout and 4 post workout
each bach makes 48 balls.

serving size 4 balls
230 cal
fat 7 g
carb 31 g
sugars 24 g
protein 15 g


BTW if you are one of my personal training clients, you will be getting a sack of balls from me. If you are family or anyone else, forget about it. Maybe you can bum some kombucha or something.