Healthy Protein Balls – refined sugar & gluten free

We LOVE these healthy protein balls! Not only are they much cleaner than most because they are refined sugar free & gluten free but they taste absolutely delicious too!

We are constantly running and go go go in our home and these protein balls make the easiest healthy quick snack that we can grab on the go! My kids love them because not only do they taste yummy, but they’re filling too. 

If you’ve got allergies in your home to peanuts, you can easily swap out the peanut butter for almond butter. We do a combo of sunflower butter and cashew butter for Liliana since she’s allergic both to peanuts and almonds. Everything in the recipe is easily substitutable – don’t fret if you are missing an ingredient! Most of the time I don’t measure this and just start dumping my ingredients into a bowl. It’s truly the easiest recipe to add in or take out what you want!

I’ve been making these non stop around here. I make a batch about 1-2 times a week and just store them in the refrigerator in a sealed container.

A few tips for the BEST healthy protein balls:

1. Don’t forget to break down your oats a bit in either a food processor (or I use my vitamix), it makes them much easier to chew and the oats aren’t so bulky in the protein balls. We get the organic sprouted gluten free oats from Costco.
2. Make sure to use Organic Nut Butters – most of these won’t have any added oils or sugars. My favorite peanut butter is the Kirkland Organic Peanut Butter from Costco
3. When adding shredded coconut – again make sure to get a coconut without added sugar! I get this organic unsweetened one.
4. We use cacao nibs instead of chocolate chips, they’re much healthier for you and still give you a yummy chocolate flavor and crunch! HERE are the cacao nibs we buy!
5. You can always add more or less of the hemp hearts (we get our from Costco), chia seeds (again from Costco) or flaxseed meal to your liking!
6. Lastly, if you want to add more protein to these you can always add a scoop or two of your favorite protein powder. Our favorite is the vanilla bean protein from Just Ingredients. It’s a super clean protein and is made with non-denatured 100% grass-fed non-denatured whey from Europe. It is also free from sugar, gluten, artificial sweeteners or any artificial ingredients.

Are you following along on Instagram. I made a reel with this recipe you can find HERE. Looking for more recipes?! There’s more on the blog – you can find them HERE!