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Quick and Easy Cranberry Orange Energy Bites

Quick and easy cranberry and orange no bake energy bites | My Craftily Ever After

One of my favorite snacks to make for my kids has become these no bake energy balls.  I started off making them for my daughters preschool class so they are all peanut butter and honey free, which really made me think outside the box for sticky stuff.  The dates in there add some much needed binding and they are a great source of fiber, which never hurt anyone!  They take less than 10 minutes to make and there are so many different flavor combinations out there that I’m pretty sure I could make a different one each month and never run out of ideas!  The icing on the cake…my kids LOVE them!

These ones are a play on one of my favorite sweet treats – the cranberry orange scones from Starbucks.  They don’t have that sweet icing, but other than that they are a pretty close match and have significantly less sugar!  These balls are the perfect little snack to take on play dates, to the park or (if your kids go to a preschool like ours) as a treat when you have to be “snack mom”!  It took a little trial and error, but I think these might be my new favorites (until next month anyway).

Cranberry Orange Energy Bites

  • 2 cups oatmeal
  • 1/2 cup dried cranberries
  • 1/4 pecans
  • 1/4 cup molasses
  • 1 1/2 cups dates
  • 1 tsp orange extract

Mix everything in food processor and then roll into 1″ balls.  You can roll bigger balls for a larger snack or roll smaller balls for those tiny toddlers who are just learning how to eat.  They are soft and chewy and a great starter food!

cranberry orange energy bites

What flavor combination would you love?  I’m thinking that it might be fun to do a sweet and salty combination next!  Give me your best ideas and suggestions and I’ll give them a whirl and let you know how they work out!

orange cranberry bites

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Comments

  1. Holly says

    These are fabulous! No honey no peanut butter no chocolate. And love the orange ! Thank you, I make them all the time.

    • Ashley Emmett says

      That’s really up to you, depending on the time of year I keep them on the counter in the fall and winter, but I do keep them in the fridge in the summertime.

    • DeAnn says

      You could possibly look at the nutrition information of the products you buy…add up everything & then divide by the number of balls you make. Myfitnesspal has a great ‘build a recipe’ feature for that very reason.

  6. Adrienne says

    These look delicious! It would make a great healthy summer treat 🙂 I’d love for you to link up to the Be. YOU. tiful link party. We go live on Thursdays at 12 am PST. Hope you can stop by. Pinning!

    • Ashley Emmett says

      Hi Andrea! I make mine entirely in the food processor so the mixing blade does all the work for me. I didn’t have any trouble with the molasses, and it really gave it a special flavor! Let me know how you like them if you make them.

  10. Jillene@inkhappi says

    You are right Ashley, the imagination can come up with lots of ideas for these. Some of my ideas may not all be the best for toddlers but sound yummy are applesauce and cinnamon, chocolate chips, coconut, peanut butter, crushed graham crackers, to name a few. I like that these are easy to make and manage and also healthy. I bet my grandson would like these! 🙂