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Bowls To Bars To Balls

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Morning!

I was up earlier than normal today because Matt set the alarm to be at the bakery by 7. I couldn’t go back to sleep.

But that was a blessing in disguise because it allowed to me watch Gossip Girl before the workday begins! Gosh I love that show.

Breakfast was a yogurt bowl. Our milk turned on us! This is the second time I’ve gotten this particular brand of grass-fed organic milk and the second time it’s gone bad on us. I love supporting the farm, but I can’t keep dumping the milk down. We don’t drink a half gallon fast enough and it doesn’t come in smaller containers.

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So yogurt it was.

Topped with wheatberries (lots!), brown rice puffs (which I am really enjoying much more than I thought I would!), half a banana, 1 tsp jam, chai seeds and crumbles of Flying Squirrel PB – Cinnamon (which is dry enough to crumble and worked really well in this bowl!)

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With minty

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After breakfast, I decided before I eat all of the brown rice puffs I better make some of AnneP’s 5 Minute No Bake Peanut Butter Granola Bars! I bought the rice puffs and brown rice syrup for the first time just to make the bars – oh, maybe 6 months ago!? Just now making them! I haven’t had a need for on-the-go snacks until now, when life is getting busier.

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The brown rice syrup was incredible! Like caramel. Yum. Sugar is sugar, but for baking this was great.

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I followed Anne’s recipe with a few slight changes – subs some buckwheat groats for peptias and using Sunflower Butter instead of PB. Mmmmmm!! Her wet to dry ratio was perfection!!!

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But instead of bars, BALLS were calling my name!! I couldn’t resist. The recipe made about 21 balls, and I put them in the freezer. Frozen oat puff balls just sounded good today! NOTE: wet your hands after each 4-5 balls to keep them from sticking!

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FANNEtastic Oat Puff Balls

Based on the FANNEtastic 5 Minute No Bake Peanut Butter Granola Bars. Anne says to keep them in the fridge (to hold the binder together) and individually wrap bars (or balls) for easy grab-n-go. I froze mine for a cool snack or dessert. They taste like an amazing version of Rice Krispie Treats!

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FANNEtastic Oat Puff Balls

Based on the FANNEtastic link(5 Minute No Bake Peanut Butter Granola Bars, http://www.fannetasticfood.com/recipes/no-bake-peanut-butter-granola-bars/). Anne says to keep them in the fridge (to hold the binder together) and individually wrap bars (or balls) for easy grab-n-go. I froze mine for a cool snack or dessert. They taste like an amazing version of Rice Krispie Treats!
Prep Time 5 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes
Servings 21 balls
Author kath eats

Ingredients

  • Dry
  • 1.75 cups rolled oats
  • 1 cup brown rice puff cereal
  • 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
  • 1/4 cup buckwheat groats or any other seeds/nuts
  • 1/4 cup chia seeds
  • 1/4 cup coconut
  • 2 tbsp ground flax
  • Wet
  • 1/2 cup brown rice syrup
  • 1/3 cup sunflower butter or any drippy PB – don’t use a very dry, clumpy one
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Instructions

  • Mix dry.
  • Mix wet.
  • Microwave wet for 26 seconds.
  • Stir wet into dry.
  • Wet hands and roll into balls.
  • Freeze
  • Lick bowl!

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KERF is on Foodista today! Yeah drankin’!

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And as promised, here’s the new coffee table!

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Since our furniture is pretty traditional, I’ve always wanted a modern coffee table in the room. I also prefer round tables so you don’t have to scoot around them or poke your knees (or shins if you’re tall!) on the edges.

When we moved from Charlotte, we sold our old Target table and bought two $5 stools from IKEA that I loved for their modern, simple look. They float around the room for feet or coffee.

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But they did not look very grown up!

I’ve been looking for a small round modern table for a while, and I found this nice outdoor table for only $30 at IKEA last night.

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I love the material (since it’s made for outdoors) because it’s so modern, and it was the perfect smallish size for our space. PLUS – I think the white really brightens up all of our black.

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Really happy with it! Especially the price!!

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Hopefully there will be no emergency car trips today. Just a run and a lot of bakery planning – ordering lots of items for resale and emailing applicants about phone interviews!

Have a great one!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  4. Anastasia says

    Oh man, those oat puffs look really great! I love making snacks to take with me in my bag so I’m not tempted to eat fast food or something unhealthy. I’ll have to try these out.

    I’m also lovin’ the new table! It really does brighten up the space.

    Reply

  6. Jane says

    Hi Kath- I love your blog! Question: where did you get your rug? I love the look of it against the hardwood floors. Thanks! 🙂

    Reply

    • KathEats says

      It was Karen’s from her condo in Charlotte – she had it cut down to fit her new space and gave us the leftovers. It was a BIG rug before! I’m not sure where she bought it.

      Reply

  13. Angela @ Eat Spin Run Repeat says

    I love the table! I also really need to hunt down some brown rice syrup. I’ve been wanting to experiment with a few granola bar recipes, and have tried using agave as a binder to make the ingredients stick together, but it doesn’t seem to solidify very well. Do you know if all brown rice syrups are created equal, or if there are any nasties I should be looking out for? Thanks Kath!

    Reply

  15. Maria @ The Fitted Apron says

    How in the world are you so productive in the morning? It takes me forever to write one little blog post let alone make a batch of goodies! I’m thinking about buying some of that flying squirrel peanut butter, looks delish! Have a great day.

    Reply

  16. Lucy @ The Sweet Touch says

    Wow! By the time I got to the end of this post I couldn’t remember if I was still reading your breakfast post or last night’s! Very productive morning:) You just reminded me of a Nigella “ball” recipe I’ve been wanting to try that has similar ingredients!

    Reply

  17. Valerie @ City|LIfe|Eats says

    Before I discovered I was intolerant to dairy, I used to buy milk from grass-fed cows, and it always went bad super fast. My solution was to freeze some in ice cube trays as soon as I opened it, and throw that into iced chais or cereal – it tended to melt back into milk fast and did not affect the texture as I recall, though at this point we are talking 2+ years ago.

    Love the table!

    Reply

    • LauraJayne says

      I know that I always push the boundaries on my milk – hopefully not too far – but I probably drink less than 1/4 of a serving a day – just enough to sweeten my morning coffee! Bad milk (or any product, last night we discovered that our sugar snaps peas were past their “prime”) can be so frustrating, especially if you were counting on using them!

      Reply

  18. Heather says

    That is too bad about the milk – I hate throwing food away!

    I made “balls” with dates, soy nut butter and oatmeal – all blended in the food processor until done.

    Very delicious and I love having something healthy on hand.

    Reply

    • Pat Kilmain says

      Since buying milk by the gallon is so much more cost effective, I always freeze it. I have some quart bottles (or you could use canning jars, they work in the freezer quite well) and I just leave a little room at the top for the milk to expand. This means that the quart that doesn’t get frozen is a little more than a quart, and the others a little less, but that’s usually not a problem. I also keep a box of powdered milk (or shelf stable milk) in the house to use for baking if there’s not enough thawed. Two tips for freezing milk: be sure the jars/bottles are upright until frozen (duh), and remember it takes about a day to thaw milk in the fridge. I usually put mine in the sink (because the thawing bottle sweats) til it’s about half thawed, then move it to the fridge. Texture is fine, but you should shake when it’s fully thawed.

      Reply

  24. Kayla says

    Ha! I finally made Anne’s bars this week too! I found brown rice crispy cereal at Big Lots for cheap ($2 a box!) like a month ago and had intentions of making them…but waited for some reason. I went against her recipe, too, and used a combo of honey and agave for the brown rice syrup (I can’t bring myself to buy it for one recipe.) and used almonds and walnuts for the pepitas and sunflower seeds. They tasted great, but didn’t hold together well. I think I might add more PB next time…or take a cue from you and make balls! I love Angela’s (from Oh She Glows) no-bake almond butter balls, so I can see how they would translate well.

    Love your new table!

    Reply

  31. Hope says

    I love Gossip Girl too! Last night’s episode was good! Those granola balls look really tasty! I love easy recipes like that! 🙂

    Reply

  33. Karen says

    These balls look terrific…I love making super simple no bake snacks. I just made made Ashley’s almond date “lara” bars w/orange/ginger and formed them into balls and popped them in the freezer as well. Delish, fun on-the-run snackage!

    Brown Rice syrup is a my favorite sweetener in terms of taste, but I find a little goes a long way.

    Glad you made out of Ikea in one piece…I always seem to leave that store exhausted no matter how focused my mission.

    Reply

  35. Lisa Fine says

    I hate when the milk goes bad.

    My boyfriend and I rarely buy milk because we don’t use it quickly enough, and I like to only purchase local milk. There’s one farm that has quarts for sale, but even then, we don’t always use it all.

    Love the table – super cute, especially with that lovely plant [is it wheatgrass?].

    Reply

  37. Mary @ Bites and Bliss says

    I just baked with brown rice syrup last night, too! It really is amazing stuff for baking. And about the milk, I’d love to support organic or local farms too but spoiling would be an issue. Unprocessed milk is great…but that’s kind of what keeps it from spoiling.

    Reply

    • KathEats says

      All other organic milks I’ve gotten have been fine – it’s just this one grass-fed brand. So you can still feel good buying organic!

      Reply

  40. rofomom says

    Kath, I love your love for IKEA. We love it too especially since we have found that kids have a tendendency to “ruin” things…we find it lessens the blow when something does get “ruined”. Also I am feeling totally inspired by the bars/ball. WHERE do you get the brown rice cereal. That’s new to me. Have a great day!!!!

    Reply

  41. Val @ Balancing Val says

    We buy organic milk and it does the same thing . . .

    In school we learned that we could freeze it so that we arent wasting money and still are being able to support organics.

    I dont drink cows milk often, but my boyfriend does.

    We just freeze half the gallon and take it out 1-2 days before to defrost in the fridge!!

    😀

    Reply

  48. Namaste Gurl says

    Those nut butter balls look amazing- love all the ingredients! Will so be making asap 🙂 If I used agave or maple instead, would I cut down the amount?
    Love the coffee table!

    Reply

  55. Natalia - a side of simple says

    That breakfast bowl will always be the “Easter egg” bowl to me 🙂 It just always reminds me of coloring Easter eggs!

    Your oat ball version is just ANOTHER reason why I must get my hands on some sunflower butter asap. Let the hunt begin!

    Reply

  56. Heather says

    The balls look yummie~ I have a weird question! I noticed last week that you said that you like to do one exercise hard day then light, hard and so on. I have noticed lately that my jeans get tight in the legs as the day goes on, thinking maybe water retention?? I usually do a bootcamp(Mon), body pump(Tues), Spin class(Wed), yoga (THurs), spin(Friday), bootcamp or spin (Sat), off on Sunday. Do you think that is too many hard days is that why my legs feel like weights at times?

    ~THank you for your imput! Heather

    Reply

    • KathEats says

      I really can’t tell you what a hard day is – you have to listen to your body! Do you feel tired when you haven’t done that much yet? That’s a sign you might be a bit fatigued. But maybe all the pumping is building muscles in your leggins?

      Reply

      • Heather says

        Not really, my legs may be sore for a couple of minutes but after I get warmed up they are fine. It seems like as the day goes on if I start feeling fatigued my jeans start getting tight in the legs. They are fine in the mornings when I get ready as the day goes on they seem to get tighter and tighter. Does spinning make your legs big? Does running do the same?

        Heather

        Reply

  57. Alaina Rose @ Sweetness Of Life says

    Those peanut butter balls look so good! Treats like that are some of my favorite things to make. I love throwing healthy-ish tasty things together in a bowl and then rolling them up into balls! But, sometimes I just have to call them “nuggets” instead, because I start feeling weird saying “balls” so many times!

    Reply

  58. Khushboo says

    I just baked a banana bread and those balls/bars are next on my list! Unfortunately brown rice syrup is not easily avail here but do you think honey would work instead?

    Reply

  61. Doc (The Healthy PhD) says

    This is going to sound crazy, but could you take 1/2 of your 1/2 gallon (i.e. a quart) and freeze it into ice cube trays? That way, you can use the smaller portion of the liquid for coffee, cereal, etc and the frozen cubes to cook with…?

    I have frozen milk before, and it gets a little precipitatey if you want to drink it, but I use it in soups, oatmeal, baking just fine.

    Reply

  62. KathEats says

    I don’t know how I feel about freezing milk – it makes me think it will water down. Are you guys SURE it would work??

    Reply

    • Pat Kilmain says

      I answered this in an earlier reply. I do it all the time, and there is no separation, at least in 1% milk. Maybe whole milk would separate more due to more fat? All I do is thaw it, shake it gently before using it the first time, then use as normal.

      Reply

    • victoria says

      if you just try it with the amount you have been tossing, it really doesn’t matter…try it and see…either way it will be tossed…or it just might work 🙂

      Reply

      • KathEats says

        Well when I buy the regular organic milk it lasts for like 10 days I’m not throwing any out.. I’m just going to go back to that kind I think

        Reply

    • Laura Jane says

      I’ve frozen milk before (regular 2%) and it has worked for me! Much better than tossing it. I also like almond breeze because the stuff lasts so long and is so tasty.

      Reply

  63. Emily @ Savory and Savage says

    Too bad about the milk going sour 🙁

    One thought – you could use the whey (the clear liquid left after the curds separate) to make lacto – fermented veggies.

    I agree with the other comments – I am always awed by your productivity!

    Reply

  66. Sarah for Real says

    Your local milk is probably less pasteurized than conventional milk. This means it will spoil faster but it also means it’s more nutritious (more probiotics, etc).

    Keep it at the back of your fridge, in the coldest spot. Definitely do not keep it in the door.

    Mine usually is good for about 7 days after I open it. If it’s spoiling faster than that, maybe you need to figure out which day they deliver the fresh stuff to the store and buy it that day.

    Reply

  67. Cristal says

    Hi Kath,

    Over the summer, you had a special on OpenSky for Naturally Nutty Sunflower Butter. Well, I bought some to try, fell in love, and now I’m out…Just wondering if you will do another special on this product in the near future?
    Thanks,
    Cristal

    Reply

  68. Sara @ myfancytuna.blogspot.com says

    What is the difference between HFCS and brown rice syrup? I haven’t taken any advanced chemistries so I can’t be sure, but to me BRS sounds like a more expensive version of HFCS? I’ve read that BRS has a lower glycemic index but just from the general overview that I learned about in class it sounds like they’re made the same way.

    Again, I haven’t researched this at all, so I may be totally wrong, so I wanted to see what you thought! 🙂

    Reply

    • KathEats says

      I am not researched up on the chemical structure, but it seems just like all the other sweetener syrups to me. That’s why I said “Sugar is sugar.” I don’t intend to use it any more often than I use sugar – which isn’t often!

      Reply

      • Sara @ myfancytuna.blogspot.com says

        Thank you! I mainly wanted to know because it’s hard to shell out a dollar for one Luna bar when I can get a cheaper (although less enriched/fortified) box of bars for $2.00 – I used to stick with Luna/Clif bars because I thought brown rice syrup was healthier, but after hearing that in my Food and the Consumer class I started rethinking that purchase choice! Now I either shell out big bucks for LARA bars or stick with the cheaper brand!

        Reply

          • kris says

            What’s the difference between something like tofu and processed soy protein in bars? When I eat processed grains, I try to go with a process that’s traditional and has been around for a long time. (So tempeh instead of tofu and tortillas instead of corn bread, for example.)

            Reply

            • KathEats says

              Tofu, tempeh, miso, edamame, soy milk – they are all whole soy. They have gone through some processing, but the whole protein is in tact.

              Isolated soy protein is part soy. It’s like half of the protein. And that doesn’t seem like real food to me.

              Reply

  71. Tracy says

    I just made some balls based off of Anne P’s recipe also. They’re perfect to grab on my way out the door as a pre-workout snack! And yummy!

    Reply

  72. Christine says

    I love love love Gossip Girl too! Thanks for the Oat Puff balls recipe……I see that it has TJ’s sunflower butter in it!

    Reply

  79. Katie says

    Those look amazing. I can’t wait to try to make them. I was thinking of using agave and/or honey in place of the brown rice syrup. I didn’t want to buy it just for one recipe. Is it healthier than using agave/honey? I’d be willing to buy it if I could use it as a substitute more often.

    Also, I love Ikea. I think its great. That table does look great with those amazing couches.

    Reply

    • KathEats says

      I don’t know if it’s any healthier – maybe just a little different. Honey or agave would probably work just as well. I think maple isn’t sticky enough.

      Reply

  80. renee says

    Divide and Freeze the milk in mason jars as soon as you bring it home, in portions that you can use in 2-3 days. Thaw in fridge over night and use within 2-3 days 🙂 Make sure to give a good shake before using to redistribute the cream. will freeze about 2-3 months.

    Reply

  81. Alison AP says

    Delish! I made these and they were FABULOUS!! Thanks! It’s a great way to chip at the buckwheat I have just sitting in my cabinet 🙂

    Reply

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