Casa Petrie

I’ve been reading about all the benefits of adding flaxseed to baked goods.  I found a recipe for protein balls and thought this would be an easy, tasty way to introduce flaxseed into our diets.  I’m also a big fan of having fun food available for breakfast.

Protein Balls:

• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 3/4 cup nonfat milk powder
• 1/2 cup ground flaxseed
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup crushed cereal, such as Honey Bunches of Oats

And one or two of the following:

• 1/3 cup raisins
• 1/3 cup Craisins
• 1/3 cup sunflower nuts
• 1/3 cup chocolate chips
• 1/3 cup walnuts

1. Combine peanut butter, milk powder, flaxseed, honey in a bowl and mix well. Stir in sunflower nuts and Craisins.
2. Roll mixture in small bowls and then roll balls in crushed cereal. Place on waxed paper.
3. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour before serving.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Chill time: 1 hour

Yield: 16 balls

I used the sunflower seeds from our garden in the recipe.  I googled sunflower seeds and found out that if you use your blender to break up the seeds, then dump the crushed seeds into a big bowl of cold water, the shells will float to the top!  Each deshelled sunflower seed is very tiny, so it took a lot of shelled seeds to make about 1/2 cup  of seeds.  But it was easy and that made me so happy, because I had been dreading cracking open each individual shell.

I also used raisins my mother-in-law made from her own grapes.  These raisins are sweet and juicy and not overly sugared as some commercial varieties are.

Yum!  Have a great day.