As I already wrote about this week, I’ve made the decision to adopt a strictly vegan diet for the month. My thought process was that this would be fairly easy for me because I’ve been a vegetarian and pescatarian for over three years now. So far it’s been super simple to avoid animal products during my main meals, where I’ve had to think a liiiiiiitle bit harder and with more consideration is during snack time. And as you know, I LOVE me some snacks. Seemingly innocuous products like Aussie bites (which I’ve been wanting to try to recreate for a while now) actually contain…..wait for it….butter! Those sneaky little morsels!

So, this seemed like the perfect time to try my hand at whipping up a new snack that is both vegan AND helps me to avoid buying pre-packaged items. As serendipity would have it, my dad conveniently just jarred a TON of fig jam from his fig tree this past week and I was more than happy to take some off his hands. The old fruit and nut combo is a flavor profile that will never go out of style and so I thought hmmmmmm peanut butter + fig jam + throw in some chocolate and TA DA! 

These little peanut butter and fig protein balls came out tasting like a healthy cake pop and I was NOT mad about it. I popped a few of them into a mason jar and took them to work for a quick breakfast I could easily eat at my desk with coffee.

Recipe:

• 1/2 to 3/4 cup of peanut butter (I used creamy but I wish I would have had some crunchy on hand)
• 1/4 cup of walnuts
• 1 tablespoon of chia seeds
• Several tablespoons of homemade fig jam (or any other jam or jelly of preference)
• 2 tablespoons of Trader Joe’s chocolate hemp protein powder

Instructions:

• Plop everything into your food processor and pulse on high for a few minutes
• Roll into tablespoon sized balls and store in the freezer
• Enjoy!

*I think dropping in some dried cranberries and other nuts would have been really tasty as well. Next time…..