Nourish your body, mind, and spirit with these Cherry Vanilla Energy Bites, full of nutritious ingredients that will also satisfy your sweet tooth! I know you love this flavor combination as evidenced by your response to my recipe for Vegan Cherry Vanilla Parfait!
Cherries are such a wonderful thing in the summertime. In fact, we have a neighbor with a cherry tree and I can see the cherries already coming to color. Sometimes she let’s me pick a few so I’m excited to see a bountiful crop unfolding.
But let’s talk about vanilla. Because I‘ve been such a chocoholic in my life that I’ve oftentimes disregarded vanilla. As the infamous Inspector Clouseau says, “Not any more.”
I just want to say for the record that the opposite of chocolate is not vanilla. In fact, chocolate and vanilla live on a delightfully delicious spectrum together! I just wonder why it’s taken me so long to discover that.
So lately I’ve been a little more into vanilla and all I can think is…what took me so long! There’s something so perfect about the flavor profile and it combines so nicely with other flavors…like cherries!
Don’t you like how that worked together?
How to Make Cherry Vanilla Energy Bites
These energy bites are so easy to make and yield such nutritious little bites, you’ll want to make batch after batch. With the hot summer months on the horizon, no one wants to be firing up the oven to make cookies. And besides, if you’re working out and breaking a sweat, you’ll need something a little more nutritious than normal.
That’s where these energy bites come in.
Here’s the cool part, they’re so easy to make. All you do is combine the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until you get the right consistency. Then roll them into balls and roll those balls into your topping and voilà! You have delicious energy bites!
There’s only a few ingredients involved in this recipe, and that makes shopping so much easier.
Also, I’m using vanilla-flavored protein powder to give these energy balls a little extra dose of protein-infused nutrition. I really love the flavor of vanilla protein powder made with plant-based pea protein which is great because it doesn’t have an aftertaste like some protein powders I’ve tried.
Also, Aloha products are full of lots of great things your body needs and they’re free of GMOs, gluten, soy, dairy and anything artificial. All their products are plant-based and organic.
Almost just as important, Aloha protein powder products are now sold at Target stores nationwide! I love having healthy ingredients so accessible!
We hope you love these Cherry Vanilla Energy Bites as much as we do! If you make this recipe, be sure to snap a photo and share it with me using #namelymarly on Instagram or even SnapChat (I’m @namelymarly there). We love seeing your photos!
Cherry Vanilla Energy Bites
Ingredients
- ½ cup raw almonds
- ¼ cup sunflower butter*
- ½ cup Aloha Vanilla Bean Plant-Based Protein Powder
- ½ cup dried cherries
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup agave nectar or honey
- 3 tablespoons unsweetened coconut flakes**
- 2 tablespoons dried cranberries+
- 1 tablespoon sunflower butter*
Instructions
- Place the almonds in a food processor and pulse for a few moments until the almonds are broken up into small pieces.
- Add the sunflower butter, Aloha protein powder, dried cherries and maple syrup (or agave or honey). Pulse until combined and nuts and cherries are broken into smaller bits. You may need to push down ingredients from the side of the food processor and pulse again.
- Roll into balls, pressing the mixture between your hands to seal everything together. Place each energy bite onto a plate.
- After all the balls are rolled, place the coconut flakes and dried cranberries into your food processor bowl (don’t bother cleaning it out, it’s all good stuff). Pulse until the coconut and cranberries are broken into small pieces.
- Spread a little bit of sunflower butter over an energy bite ball and then roll it in the coconut/cranberry topping. Repeat with each ball.
- Store in a lidded container in the fridge.
Notes
Enjoy!
I love these little bites! What a fun way to re-energize!
Thanks, Jeanette! I agree – love to have these energy bites around!
these taste amazing! However, the “spreading” of the almond butter on the outside caused my balls to crumble so I couldn’t do it. Any idea why? I followed the recipe as written
Hi Lisa. Thanks for your comment. I call for sunflower butter in this recipe and haven’t tried it with almond butter before. That said, if the energy bites are crumbling, I’d either add a little bit more almond butter or some agave nectar (maple syrup works too), to cause stickiness to hold it all together. Let me know how that works!
Disappointed this recipe showed up with cranberries and no cherries. Was looking forward to a REAL cherry recipe. Barb
Hi Barbara. Actually, this recipe showcases both dried cherries and dried cranberries in the recipe and in the photo. I used both in case people had a hard time finding one or the other, and also because there is a different flavor from both. Hope that clarifies things for ya.