Kids will love turning healthy peanut butter balls into adorable chocolate drizzled bumble bees almost as much as they’ll love eating them!
MAKING HEALTHY PEANUT BUTTER BALLS THAT LOOK LIKE BUMBLE BEES
INGREDIENTS AND SUPPLIES FOR MAKING BUMBLE BEE HEALTHY PEANUT BUTTER BALLS
Here’s some of the ingredients and supplies you can use to make your own healthy peanut balls and bumble bees. You can scroll down to learn more about the instant milk powder we recommend. These are affiliate links so if you purchase ANYTHING from Amazon using these links, we get a small commission without it costing you anything extra. Thanks for supporting our family business!
IRRESISTIBLE HEALTHY PEANUT BUTTER BALLS
If our family were to live off of one food for the rest of our lives, it would probably be peanut butter.
And while I know my kids (and husband!) would happily eat sugary peanut butter desserts and candies all day long, I want to make sure they’re grabbing protein packed snacks that aren’t full of a bunch of processed sugar.
So I took my mom’s healthy peanut butter balls that I grew up on, and added in some oats for fiber. After much taste testing, much more than was needed I’m sure, we had the recipe just right.
Crunchy natural peanut butter, instant oats, a touch of honey, and powdered milk, turn into a lovely dough that is simply irresistible to any peanut butter fan.
THE BEST POWDERED MILK
I’ve had powdered milk all over the world. Between growing up military, and doing years of disaster relief, sometimes powdered milk was the only kind I could get.
But it never really tasted like milk. Until I found one that actually does!
Thrive Life Instant Milk Powder is nice and fine, so it dissolves instantly into hot or cold liquids. The texture also makes it great for things like no bake cookies and protein balls.
Plus it’s non-GMO and doesn’t contain any bioengineered ingredients.
But the best part is that it actually tastes like milk!
If we are running out of milk, I just mix some up with water and refrigerate it overnight. The next day, no one can tell that I switched from fresh milk to powdered!
A COOKING PLAYDATE
The first week we met Corban’s friend, he mentioned that he LOVES cooking videos. His mom confirmed that he regularly asks to watch them on her phone.
“Did you know that Corban makes cooking videos?” I asked, and pulled out my phone to show him our Facebook page. His eyes lit up as he watched them, amazed that he knew a cooking video STAR.
So when we offered to have him over to our house last week, he began eagerly counting down the days until he got to go to “The Eating Richly House”.
We decided to surprise him by letting him film a cooking video with Corban and Larkin, and what a surprise it was! He has been talking about it ever since, and says it was the most AMAZING day.
These work really well for a kids to make because they love mixing and rolling the healthy peanut butter balls. But the decorating was a little too detailed for their toddler and preschool fingers.
So I did all the chocolate, stingers, and most of the wings while they were napping. Then they woke up and got to finish adding wings to the ones they were going to eat.
If you turn these healthy peanut butter balls into bumble bees, we’d love to see them! Just take a picture with your phone and post it on our Facebook page. It’s so fun to see your creations!
PIN TO SAVE HEALTHY PEANUT BUTTER BALL BUMBLE BEES:
Bumble Bee Peanut Butter Balls
Kids will love turning these healthy peanut butter balls into bumble bees almost as much as they love eating them! If you have bulk instant oats, use 3/4 cup for the single serve packet. We prefer dark chocolate chips which have more nutrition and less sugar, but you can sub whatever kind you like. Also, make sure to use gluten free oats to make these gluten free. Also, these will have less sugar and sodium if you use natural peanut butter like we do. Our current nutrition calculator doesn't have natural peanut butter in its database.
Ingredients
- 1 cup natural crunchy peanut butter
- 1.5 ounce packet of instant oats
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/2 cup instant milk powder
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
- 40 mini chocolate chips
- 40 sliced almonds
- 10 slivered almonds, broken in half
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix the peanut butter, oats, honey, and instant milk into a dough. Add a little more honey or peanut butter if it seems too dry.
- Use your hands to roll the dough into 20 slightly elongated balls (about 1 inch in diameter), and place them on a cookie sheet. Cover and refrigerate while you melt the chocolate.
- Melt the dark chocolate chips in a double boiler. (If you don't have one, you can simply place them in a heat safe bowl on top of a pot with a couple inches of boiling water. Use a potholder or dish towel to hold the bowl while you mix the chocolate until it is completely melted.)
- Use a spatula to scoop the melted chocolate into a zip top plastic bag, squeezing the air our before you seal it. Then snip off a tiny corner from the bottom of the bag.
- Take the bees out of the fridge, uncover, and pipe three thin lines of chocolate on top of each bee.
- Press the points of two mini chocolate chips into each peanut butter ball for eyes.
- Carefully poke the pointy ends of two sliced almonds in between the middle and back strip of each peanut butter ball. These are the bees' wings.
- Gently poke the broken end of half a slivered almond into the back of each peanut butter ball for a stinger.
- For best texture, keep bees in a single layer in an airtight container in the fridge. But they can be safely left out up to a week.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
20Serving Size:
20 beesAmount Per Serving: Calories: 161Saturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 3mgSodium: 77mgCarbohydrates: 13gFiber: 1gSugar: 8gProtein: 5g
That looks really adorable and good.
Belle | One Awesome Momma
This sounds great. I would love to try this soon.
These are adorable! What a great recipe to make with little ones.
Aw these are the cutest little bites! I am a sucker for anything peanut butter. But I especially love it with oats. My favorite cookies are oatmeal peanut butter, actually! I cannot wait to make these as a healthy substitute!
Diana, I hope you are thinking of an ebook with all your cutie ideas in it. I am sharing this one.
This is such a cute idea! Perfect for kids. Love it!