The most vital part of any healthy diet is nailing the nutritional make-up of your main meals, but the importance of snacking should never be underestimated. All the chicken-breast-and-broccoli dinners in the world won’t bring your weight down if you stuff your face with cake and biscuits in between.
One surefire way to ensure your snacks don’t derail a healthy diet is to make them yourself, because it’s basically impossible to sneak a load of added sugar into something you’re making yourself without realising it’s happening.
This salted caramel protein balls recipe from Body Design ticks all the boxes for a fulfilling yet healthy treat. It contains oats, cashews and almond butter to fill you up with unsaturated fats and fibre, plus dates and a little dark chocolate to satisfy your sweet tooth.
The ingredients also include one sachet of Body Design’s vanilla shake, a meal replacement shake that’s high in protein and fibre. It’s designed to be used in a calorie-restricted diet but works just as well, if not better, as supplement here.
Best of all, the protein balls shouldn’t take more than a jiffy to make. Plus an hour in the freezer to set, but you don’t have to be there for that.
RECOMMENDED: High-Protein Snacks
Ingredients (Makes Nine Balls)
- ½ cup (75g) oats
- ½ cup (55g) cashews
- 1½ cup (260g) dates
- Pinch of sea salt
- 1 sachet vanilla Body Design shake
- 2tbsp almond butter
- Drizzle of melted dark chocolate (you can decide on what that means, but if you go overboard, expect the nutritional info below to change drastically)
Method
- Put the oats and cashews in a food processor and pulse for a few seconds.
- Add the remaining ingredients and blend again until all ingredients are well combined.
- Roll the mixture into balls and pop these into the freezer for an hour to set.
- Drizzle with a little melted dark chocolate and enjoy.
Nutritional Info (Per Ball)
Calories 159
Protein 5.7g
Fats 5.5g
Carbs 23.4g
