Made in under 10 minutes with just a handful of wholesome ingredients, these chocolate chip oatmeal date balls make a perfect quick and healthy snack.
You guys, I’m embarrassed… and not only because spellcheck just had to autocorrect “embarrassed” for me for the umpteenth time. Last Thursday was National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, and not only was I not aware of that fact until well into the late afternoon, but I didn’t do anything to celebrate it even after I found out. I know… I’m ashamed of me too, but I have this bad habit of not jumping onto bandwagons until well after the fact and doing things on my own time, which is probably why I still haven’t read Harry Potter and why I always have my phone on silent — I’ll attend to it when it suits me, thank you very much, and not when it demands my attention by beeping or ringing. But I digress; back to the issue at hand — chocolate chip cookies…
These… are not chocolate chip cookies — they’re oatmeal date balls. But they do have chocolate chips, which counts for something, right? They’re also packed with good-for-you ingredients like oats, dates, and nuts…
… come together in a flash without the use of an oven or freezer, and are an absolute delight to eat…
Such a delight, in fact, that I ran a serious risk of polishing off the entire batch before I even had a chance to shape, plate, and photograph them. I still ended up a couple of balls short, but I couldn’t help it! I may not be willing to eat raw cookie dough because of the serious fear I have of salmonella poisoning, but all bets are off when eggs aren’t involved… and these little things are addictive!
First, the base is made up of one of my favourite combinations — oats, dates, and almonds. This gives these bites an ooey, gooey consistency with just the perfect amount of caramely sweetness.
Then, that melt-in-your-mouth consistency is punctuated by a light airy crunch from the crispy rice cereal, making these bites a sensory delight for more than just your tastebuds.
Finally… I already mentioned the chocolate chips, right? And the fact that I have trouble controlling myself around these? They’re gluten-free, dairy-free, refined sugar-free, and easily made vegan or nut-free. Basically perfection.
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Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Date Balls
- Total Time: 10 mins
- Yield: 12 bites 1x
Ingredients
- 1 cup (80 g) rolled or quick oats
- 1/2 cup (90 g) pitted dates
- 1/4 cup (64 g) nut butter*
- 3 Tbsp (60 g) honey**
- 1/2 cup (15 g) crispy rice cereal
- 2 – 4 Tbsp (30 – 60 g) mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- Throw oats into a food processor or blender and process until they reach a fine floury consistency. Add dates, nut butter, and honey and continue processing until fully combined. When dough begins to form and stick together, add crispy rice cereal and chocolate chips, pulsing a few times to ensure that they distribute evenly without breaking apart completely.
- Using a tablespoon, scoop out balls of dough and roll them between your hands to neatly shape them. Store balls in an airtight container, either at room temperature or in the fridge.
Notes
* I used almond, but peanut butter would be fine as well. Or you can use soy nut butter for a nut-free option.
** agave or rice syrup would work as well if you want them to be vegan.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
eat all the balls. seriously I keep ordering these from Cotter Crunch because I am actually too lazy to make them. #truestory I made some myself but it was a mess and they looked like squares 🙂
Chocolate chips are best in my hand straight from the bag! Or stuck to a spoon of nut butter, always.
I am the same way with being told what to do and trends of the current times. I will not do ANYTHING someone says I “should do” which is why recovering from my eating disorder took so long. My mom took a while to realize the more she told me to do, the more I would do the exact OPPOSITE. It’s a huge mental note for me to make sure I’m not doing something just to prove I am somewhat of an independent thinker!
I have the same exact issue. The people who know me well know that to get me to do something they have to convince me that it’s my idea in the first place 😆 I’m ridiculous.
okay so these look just like cookie dough….I’m in! haha great recipe 😀
Calandar.
Calendar.
I accepted that I will never be able to spell that one.
Ps- You have mad….um… spherical skills? What I mean is that those are the most perfect balls that ever balled. Your balls are balling!
PPs- Balls.
Oh, my lanta! These look so cute! I love dates, and was considering adding them into my diet more regularly! I definitely will need to go buy them now!
What’s one word that you always have trouble spelling? That would be definitely I always want to put definietly and no it doesn’t even look right, it is just what I type :O
Chocolate chips are best in/with raw almonds! I have really been enjoying this combination!
You always come up with the best ways to combine oats and almond butter! These look incredible!
😆 I’m seriously waiting for the day when I run out of ways to combine those things. It’ll happen…
These are a change up from the way I usually make date/nut balls. I like the addition of rice cereal and using nut butter instead of nuts. I’m sure they’re pretty irresistible. I’m pinning and making these for snacks for the kids next week…. I know they’ll love them!
6-Ingredient no bake bites WITH chocolate – STOP – don’t eat another “bite” – pack them up and ship them to MOI! Puuuuhleeeezzzz!!!!
Seriously – these sound phenomenal – when I was around 12 I had such an infatuation with dates I ate so many, I ended up in the ER!
My word is “deceive” I keep having to go.. “i before e, ex cept after c…”
I love these types of snacks! They are so tasty and easy to bring with you when you’re on the go (which I always am). I have all the ingredients for these so I think they will have to be made this weekend! 🙂
Words I can’t spell: embarrassed and broccoli. Damn you, double consonants throwing me off. Oops – add consonants to the list. Thank god for spellcheck.
And I think you just gave me an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie craving…but I think these would do instead 😉
I always mix spell dessert and desert wrong. I always seem to mix the two up. Oh and hummus too. I can never tell if I need to have more “m’s” or “u’s.” Chocolate chips are best with oatmeal! This is my new “dessert” lately. Mixing chocolate chips into my oatmeal, they melt and get all creamy. OMG…yum! I better make some now!
The M and U issue is one I always have when I’m trying to spell vacuum. Ugh. See… I just went and spelled it wrong right there (vaccum) 😯
I have trouble spelling most every word, I don’t know what I would do wothout spell check! Chocolate chips, but butter and dates sound like the perfect combination. I made some snack bites last week with dates, cashews and apricots thy were pretty good! I’ll have to try these next!
The crispy rice cereal is such an awesome addition to these. I would never think of adding that on my own and it sounds amazing!
AMANDA. You haven’t read Harry Potter? You, the bookworm, HAVEN’T READ HARRY POTTER?!? Tell me this isn’t true ;).
But aside from that, I need to eat these. I was going to say “put those balls in my mouth asap”, but as I typed it out I realized that it just doesn’t sound very…. appropriate. I love energy bites and have been thinking about putting dates in them forever since they seem like a good binding agent! Gorgeous photos, as always!
Oh, and an email reply is coming back your way today! Sorry I’ve been so bad about it- ochem midterm yesterday and a stats exam coming up as well. Sigh.
These look amazing! Perfect snack and sweet tooth fix!
Ok these look delicious and all but what really catches my eye is your ball-rolling skills…perfectly shaped, girlie! I love the combo of chocolate chips and almonds but add in a caramely flavour from dates and I’m in heaven! I bet it would taste even better with a touch of salt too :-)! That all being said, chocolate chips are best in my mouth…yes please :-)!
Salt! Yes! I was going to add some, but both my AB and cereal had salt in them so I decided to skip. I should probably put that in the notes though…
They look so tasty, definitely something my kids would go nuts for!
These look amazing. I need them in my life now!
yummmmmmmm I need to buy myself a food processor JUST for these.. they look really good !!! I always spell receive wrong.. every time.. I even say to myself “I before E except after C” but my fingers just don’t react as fast… lol
These look really yummy! Not only do I have a hard time spelling a certain word, I can’t remember what said word is at the moment (pregnancy brain, I guess). But every time I use it in a post or something, I get told how wrong I am.
Well, you’re not alone because I didn’t know it was National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day either! I kind of feel like I need a chocolate chip cookie now to celebrate! 😉
I was just thinking the other day how its been forever seen I’ve made bites like these, so this is perfect timing! They look fabulous!
Oh, and the word I always have trouble spelling is restitution (a word that I use a lot at work!).
I kid you not, it took me 10 years to figure out how to spell “Business”. I would always spell it so that it sounded like “Bweezeness” 😉
I’ve been on a HUGE energy bite/ball kick lately so I’ll have to give these a try too. Although I have basically none of the ingredients. 🙁
I love anything made with dates and chocolate! Yummy! I too always keep my phone on vibrate. I have never heard my phone ring and I have had it for over a year. It’s just unnecessary
Yum! I wish I hadn’t already eaten all my chocolate chips…guess I’ll have to get more, sigh 😉 ha!
I love simple but tasty recipes like this, yum! I bet these are great pre and post gym snacks too.
chocolate chips best with cookies! fo shoooo
and dont feel bad about the spelling thing. i always spell check things. on google. hahaha. concierge always gets me… true story i just googled how to spell it haha
those balls look so so good. i just pinned them and followed ya on pinterest 😉
my sister and I made these yesterday…so so so good. i saw kara goucher made them on her instagram so i made them too. figured if i keep eating them by the handful…ill be fast JUST like her lol
http://lifemadesimplebakes.com/2014/04/monster-cookie-dough-energy-bites/
Omg if only, right? Either way, those do look incredible!
I DON’T KNOW HOW TO SPELL EMBARASSED. <<<< that's how I spell it but apparently that's wrong because there is a red squiggly underneath. It's tough. Also, I love balls so thank you for these!
Completely stupid but I always forget how to spell tomorrow. Like I even had to Google it then to check ha. These balls look mighty fine 😉 and made up of one of THE best flavour combos around – win! Add a dash of cinnamon and I think they would be gone very quickly!
Those look really good, thanks for sharing!
I think some of my most embarrassing words to be autocorrected are definitely and embarrassing. (I almost left them to not to be). Often times even after I spell check, I’ll miss things. Lord knows what would happen if I didn’t have those!
Definitely used to cause me all sorts of grief as well until I legit started sounding it out in my head every time I typed it 😆 And the new auto autocorrect has made me so lazy… I don’t have to go back and change anything since it does it for me. Ugh. I can feel myself getting dumber 😆
Ohhh, those look so good!
Chocolate chips are best in… home-made cookies! 🙂
Ive said it before and I’ll say it again…you my friend are the ball KA-WEEN. I feel ya on the spellcheck–I can’t spell conveinent (which is supposed to be convenient) for the life of meeeeee!!!!
i agree! and i can’t spell that word either! sheesh. Thank you spell check! and totally baller Amanda!
This is random but I can’t spell “separate”. I always make the second e an a! I can always count on you to get my fix of oatmeal/almond butter/honey/chocolate chips!
I need to make those…now off to the store to get dates 🙂
I have a particularly hard time with particularly. When I was teaching I doubted myself every time I wrote something on the board. I lived in constant fear I’d misspell a simple word only to be corrected by a ten-year-old. 🙂
I drag my feet when it comes to jumping on the bandwagon. I have not read any of the Harry Potters (though I did fall asleep in one of the movies, SNORE! so, so boring!) never seen American Idol, and I don’t have a Facebook account.
“Definitely” used to give me BIG problems 😆 And I still don’t have a personal Facebook account… the only reason I got one was for Spoons!
I have a serious craving for these now! I may need to whip up a batch this weekend. I always have a hard time spelling “irresistible” so I always end up doing some variation, like- “it’s hard to resist” instead, haha.
I hate spell check. It always red lines “dessert” so right there we have a conflict. I sometimes screw up embarrassed like just now as autocorrect fixed it lol….
Seriously? It squiggles dessert? I don’t think that’s ever happened to me, but if it did… ohhh yeah we’d be having some issues!
I totally missed the National Chocolate Chip Day too and realized it later that day. Chocolate chip cookies are my favorite so that was a bummer!
These look delicious! I love little snack recipes like this, they’re so convenient. I’m ashamed to say I have to be auto corrected or spell check refrigerate <– just happened again.
These look perfect! 😀
I can’t spell anything! I always always spell ingredients wrong (just did..had to use autocorrect!) and same thing with horse…I always end up typing it with a u. Haha! Embarrassed, yea, that too 😉
Okay one time I spelled “cheese” like “cheeze.” THAT is incorrect, Shannon. haha!!
And I’m totally making these tonight. I just bought dates yesterday, so this recipe is perrrfect!
Chocolate chips are best with nut butters. 🙂 Can’t say it enough!