In the Kitchen: energy Bites

Charlotte from Natural Grocers showed newswatch 12 how to make energy bites

Natural grocers.

Welcome back to newswatch 12 today, we're joined in the kitchen by charlotte from natural grocers.

How's it going?

What are we cooking up today?

I'm good.

Thanks so much for having me.

So today we are going to be making some energy bites or what you might hear called fat bombs.

So fat for a while has kind of been villainized, right?

We were really encouraged to stay away from fat, go for fat free options, low fat options.

Um, we saw lots of those options popping up in the grocery store.

Um, but what new research is really shedding light on is some of the health benefits surrounding fat.

And that's what this recipe is really focused on is, is proding the body with a really condensed source of energy and a bite sized form that you can take on the go.

It's quick, it's easy, um, but you're getting some really healthy fats from it.

So what?

What goes into, i smell it.

It smells.

Does it smell?

It's about peanut butter.

It's almond butter.

I love almond butter.

I feel like almond butter, has a little bit of a natural sweetness to it.

So that's kind of a plus, especially in this recipe, because we don't need to add any extra sugar to it.

So what i'm starting with is just about a cup of freshly ground almond butter.

We grind our own actually over at natural grocers.

It's just straight almonds, so there's nothing else in it, but it's really, really tasty.

So i have about a cup of that in here over a double broiler.

So i have some water underneath here.

We're going to heat that up, and the steam is actually what's gonna melt that almond butter.

And then i also have about a half a cup of extra virgin coconut oil in here as well.

That's going to melt down together.

So we're going to let that melt for probably about five, 10 minutes or so, and then mix it all up.

But again, we're talking about healthy fats here.

So almond butter, really great source of healthy mono and saturated fats, our coconut oil is going to be a healthy source of saturated fat.

So we're getting all kinds of good fats in here.

Um, and then once this melts down, what we're going to do is add in some shredded coconut, about three quarters of a cup into here, a little bit of vanilla extract.

Um, vanilla is a great way to also bring out some of that natural sweetness.

So again, we don't need any sugar in here.

We got all the flavor we need, um, and then a little bit of salt.

And i would mix that altogether once this melts down.

Um, and then ideally what you're gonna want to do is pop it into the fridge, let it firm up for probably about half an hour to an hour till you can roll it into a ball.

Um, and then this is going to be our end product.

So nice firm, um, easy poppable bite size.

Stacks, right.

Great thing to take on the go.

I think they're a great pre-workout snack, post- workout snack.

Um, if you're someone i get tend to get peckish in the afternoons right before dinner, i need something to hold me over.

This would be a great option.

Even as a dessert, they're really rich and delicious.

When you have people try this at home, what do they think of it.

Um, i think the first thing is that it's really rich.

It's, it's almond butter.

It's coconut oil.

It's, it's going to be very decadent.

Um, so you don't need to eat a lot of them.

I had two of these last night for dessert, and i was like, i'm good.

These are pretty tay.

Um, so i think that's the biggest thing you get from it is, wow, this is really rich for something so small.

Um.

Yes.

Smells like you remember first smelt.

And i'm like smelling it now.

It smells like candy.

It does.

It's really the almond butter.

That almond butter has such a great taste and smell to it.

Um, it's that natural sweetness in there.

You're telling me this is a base for other, yeah.

So this is a really simple recipe as yu saw, but it's a great base recipe.

So think about other things that you like, you might like to add to it, like chocolate chips or some other nuts.

Even rolling it in a cocoa powder would be great.

So there's lots of variety you could use this recipe for.

And then the almond butter just smells.

This is the first time i've smelled almond butter.

It smells amazing.

Almond butter is my favorite.

I actually like it a little bit better than peanut butter.

I just think it has such a great flavor to it, such a richness to it.

Um, and it's really creamy too.

And you can pretty much find it at any grocery store at this point.

It's a little healthier than peanut butter.

Um, not necessarily, they're both providing you with some really healthy fats.

The main thing i would encourage people to look for when they're purchasing a peanut butter or any kind of nut butter is just watch out for that added sugar.

Um, that's going to be a big component of a lot of peanut butters.

Um, so the more you can minimize that added sugar, the better.

What do you recommend in buying your almond butter?

What do you, um, so i think if you can get fresh ground, that's a great option.

Like i said, we have it at the store.

I know lots of other stores probably in the area also grind almond butter.

But as simple as you can get, like i said, this is just simply unblanched almonds ground up.

There's nothing else added to it.

Um, so that's sort of the way you can go as simple as possible.

Thank you so much for joining me today.

For more information on and the recipe on how to make these energy bites, you can head over to our website, kdrv.com.

You can find that recipie and more on our website at kdrv.com.

Just search for "in the kitchen."