These no-bake energy balls are a fun, delicious, healthy, and convenient snack to make with kids. Who doesn’t like crushing up their favorite cereal, pretzels, etc., mixing them with gooey peanut butter, oats, and even some chocolate chips, and hand shaping little bite-sized snacks? Oh, and eating the finished product of course!

Total time: 25 minutes    Makes: about 20 bite-sized balls

Ingredients

1 ¼ cups pieces of crunchy snacks like pretzels, crackers, or cereals. I like a combination of sweet and salty. I used ½ cup pretzel pieces, ¼ cup graham cracker pieces, and ½ cup mildly sweet cereal pieces. 

1 cup oats

¼ teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

2 tablespoons maple syrup

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

½ cup peanut butter (or SunButter to make allergy friendly)

2-3 tablespoons chocolate chips

1. Combine the crushed crunchy snack pieces, oats, and cinnamon in a medium bowl.
2. Mix in the syrup and vanilla.
3. Mix in the peanut butter. 
4. Mix in the chocolate chips.
5. Use your hands to shape about 1 tablespoon of the mixture at a time into small balls, and put the balls in the fridge to harden. Store in the fridge and enjoy as a quick and easy snack!