The Baking Girl: Peanut Butter Oat Balls

One of my favorite pre-run fuel is peanut butter.  The Baking Girl, on one of her kitchen experiments, decided to make peanut butter balls aka buckeyes.  As much as I enjoyed it, the amount of sugar (in the peanut butter+confectioner's sugar+semi-sweet chocolate) gave me a headache. I recognized the potential of this recipe so I asked the girl to find a "healthier" version.  The original inspiration recipe is here - http://www.nutritiouseats.com/chocolate-peanut-butter-oatmeal-ball - but we tweaked it a bit to our taste.
  
Ingredients:
3/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup natural creamy peanut butter
1 tbsp. maple syrup
1 square chocolate coating (she really just eyeballed it,you can also melt chocolate chips)

Combine oats, peanut butter and maple syrup.  Form mixture into balls onto a cookie sheet lined with waxed paper.  Put the balls in the fridge to harden about ten minutes. Melt chocolate coating and stir until smooth.  With a fork, roll the peanut balls into the melted chocolate coating. Let the excess chocolate coating drip and put the balls back on the cookie sheet.  When all the balls are coated put cookie sheet in the fridge to set the coating. Depending on the size, this recipe will yield between 10-15 balls.

 This is my new, favorite pre-run snack.  Pictures to tempt your sweet tooth:

natural pb has less sugar per serving than regular pb

the oats add a nice texture (not everyone here like oats!)

getting ready for chocolate coating

chocolate!

energy in a small bite