Although these protein balls are named for the soon to be upon us spooktacular holiday, they are good for any time of day and any time of year! They are also perfectly acceptable for children and adults alike. Although they taste sinful, they are way better than your average Halloween candy and pack a nice protein punch! At 6 ingredients and minimal time for prep, they are a super simple healthy treat! We will also wrap up the final part of my Ecuador trip!
Guys…How is it already October? OH wait, let’s make that the end of October. How have I not finished telling you about my Ecuador trip yet? Oh wait, that’s because most days I’ve been crushed with work.
However, I since I have such fond memories of my Ecuador trip, I want to tell you the last bit about it. Sorry it has taken me so long! This will be sort of a fun, miscellaneous post about the aspects of the trip that I haven’t covered yet. If you missed the first couple posts, feel free to check out my bug bite post here, my crazy high adventure “YOLO” moments post here and information about my lodge that I stayed in this post here.
Our first night at the lodge there was an earthquake! At first I thought the people upstairs were just being crazy and jumping around or something (haha umm….yeah. That wasn’t the case!)
When we weren’t doing high adventure activities, or hanging out at the lodge, most of our time was spent hiking through the rain forest. We often just found some dirt paths and followed them.
On one hike, we came upon this huge random clearing with a pond. Off to one side there was this spooky opening back into the forest. I was like, “Yeah, we should definitely check that out.” Lol. I got a “Are you crazy? That’s so shady looking” response. But, I’m sure you’ve figured out by now I love adventure 🙂
We totally spotted a rare spectacled bear too! It was gone so quickly, though it was hard to get a good look. Pretty nutty, huh?
Most of our hikes were spent checking out waterfalls, and crossing shady bridges to get from point A to B. LOL
Other bridges were…really just random trees. The one below I wasn’t sure would hold me, but thankfully it did. I wanted to check out the river bed for cool rocks, so…I found my own makeshift bridge ahem.
A lot of the plants and insects that we came across were HUGE.
Thankfully I spotted this massive hoard of ants before I ran into it. There were millions of them…and they were ginormous. They had huge pincers and well..were very scary. They just swarmed over things and covered whatever their target was in a matter of seconds.
Finally, Ecuador was also interesting though because it would have just random open areas like this view overlooking Mindo.
Welp, that’s it for the recap on my trip. I hope you enjoyed tagging along! I’m hoping to take another trip somewhere in a couple of months, but I’m thinking of a chill maybe beach sort of trip. Any recommendations?
In the meantime, I hope you enjoy these tasty protein “eyeballs” and have a great Halloween weekend!
Double PB and Chocolate Chip Protein "Eye" Balls
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup old fashioned oatmeal
- 2 T peanut flour
- 1 T peanut butter (I make my own, but if store bought use one with no added sugar)
- 1/4 t vanilla extract
- ~16-18 chocolate chips
- dash cinnamon
- 3 T water
Instructions
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Mix your oatmeal, peanut flour and cinnamon in a bowl
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Add your vanilla extract and chop in your peanut butter until all ingredients are fully mixed
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Use your fingers to take chunks of the batter and roll into a ball.
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Press a single chocolate chip into each ball
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Set into pairs if using them for a Halloween treat
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Keep in the fridge to make them super dense if you wish.
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Eat and enjoy!
Recipe Notes
The amount of balls you get depends on how large you roll your balls!
I link up with Deborah and Sarah’s, and running on happy’s/ the fit foodie mama’s Meatless Monday, #recipeoftheweek, Best of the Blogosphere, Homestead Blog Hop, The Homstead Hop,glutenfreefridays, #healthyveganfridays, What’s for Dinner, Sunday Fitness and Food, GraciousPantry
![Chocolate Chip Sweet Potato Protein Cookies [Clean, Vegan, GF, Paleo]...And A Dash of Cinnamon Close](https://i0.wp.com/www.andadashofcinnamon.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Chocolate-Chip-Sweet-Potato-Protein-Cookies-Clean-Vegan-GF-Paleo...And-A-Dash-of-Cinnamon-Close-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1418&ssl=1)
Thanks for sharing at the What’s for Dinner party. Have a great week.
Thanks for hosting! I hope you had a great week!
What a beautiful place! I’m a huge peanut butter and chocolate fan too and these would probably keep my hands out of the candy bowl!
Thank you for linking up with us for Meatless Monday!
Haha yeah they would be a great alternative to candy!
Can’t go wrong with oatmeal, peanut butter and choc chips!
My thoughts exactly 🙂
What a beautiful place – the waterfall is beautiful. The cookies don’t look to bad either! Thanks for sharing at the What’s for Dinner link up!
The waterfalls there were so cool!
Your trip sounds amazing! I would love to go to Ecuador some day. This recipe sounds great too..perfect for Halloween, thanks for linking up at Sunday Fitness & Food 🙂
It was amazing. I’m sad that I’m finally done recapping it with you guys! I really enjoyed writing those posts. Hope you are having a great weekend! Your post reminded me that I no longer have onions but I need to get some! So thanks for that haha!
I just made a batch…delicious! Ecuador is beautiful..I’d love to go!
Awesome! I’m so glad you like them! They are super quick and easy to make and convenient to just snack on throughout the day! I hope you get a chance to go one day!
Oh the Bravo Reserve Waterfall. WOW! Your pictures are stunning.
An earthquake? Yikes. Glad everyone was ok.
Ecuador is so beautiful… and scary all at the same time 😉
“but I’m thinking of a chill maybe beach sort of trip.” California!! That’s me being selfish because if you come here, then we can meet up. I actually am realizing I have no idea where in the world you are – if you are in the States, I would highly recommend Hawaii if you haven’t been. It was my most spectacular vacation ever. I LOVED it.
Your eyeballs look so cute! And sound so tasty =) Great job with them.
Yeah it was awesome and worth the hike to get there. The picture doesn’t do the height and power of it justice though. Yeah the earthquake was certainly unexpected but pretty mild thankfully. I’ve only been to Cali a few times (San Fran, Newport Beach and LA) but it such a huge part. I’d love to get to San Diego one day and also up North wine country area. I’d love to meet you one day! I am in the States, just moved to the deep South LA from being a northern pretty much most of my life. I’ve been to Hawaii a few times, but I’d love to check out Oahu one day I haven’t been there yet but have heard people really like it.
Ah Louisiana, that’s a place I’d like to check out one day. I’ll let you know if I ever make it out there. Let me know if you ever return to Cali 😉
I thought Oahu was nice, but loved Maui so much better!
ps. Thanks so much for sharing these at Healthy Vegan Fridays! I’m pinning & sharing. I hope you’re having a great week =)
You for sure should! I can’t tell you all that much about it though since I spent my first couple months down here in a different state haha. I will let you know! Maui is awesome. I think it was my favorite island that I went to.
Ah, I ran across a bear during one of my last hikes and it was kinda heading in our direction-ish, so we decided it’d probably be best if we peaced out, haha. I really need/want to go hiking again sometime!!
Those chocolate PB balls look awesome + perfect for Hallowen)! I love chocolate + PB together!
Oh man! Your bear sounds scarier! I’m pretty sure ours wanted nothing to do with us, but it was still a bit nerve racking! Your last hike looked really awesome. I would totally want to do that! I need to get back out and hike again sometime soon when I can. Well see when that will be. Fingers crossed I’ll have some time soon!
I love these! I make something similar as a powdered pb fan…so easy.
Oh nice! Yeah, I’ve really gotten into peanut flour over the last year or too. It can be so versatile. It is so easy. Big fan!