Grown Up Peanut Butter Truffles {peanut-free}

Are you guilty of running to the pantry with spoon in hand looking for the peanut butter {or soy butter} jar ready to dig in for a heaping spoonful of protein to boost that energy? Now there's a better alternative! This is a great mix of protein and brain food perfect for a mid-morning or afternoon pick-me-up! And it only has approximately 1 gram of sugar in each truffle!

Peanut-Free Truffles: Grown-up style

1/2 c crunchy soy butter {almond butter or sun butter works here}

1/2 c rolled oats

3 T ground flax seed

2 T pure cocoa powder

2 T Agave Nectar (natural sweetener, like honey)

Put ingredients in mini food processor and pulse until blended. Roll into balls and place on wax paper. Chill until stiff. Keep chilled in fridge - they are better this way! Yummy snack with only approx. 1 gram of sugar per truffle. Makes 10-12 truffles.

These would even make a good after-school snack for the kids! Or a great addition to their lunchbox.

Ground flaxseed is high in fiber, Omega-3 fatty acids and lignans. Ground flaxseed contains 1.6 grams of Omega-3s per Tablespoon and it is recommended that adults have 1.6 grams per day. And the benefits of Omega-3s are incredible...they promote better brain function and higher intelligence, there is a lower incidence of childhood disorders with Omega-3s, among many other benefits you can read about here.

PB&J Truffles {Peanut-free}

Peanut butter & jelly sandwich? That's SO yesterday! I've been researching some new ideas for lunches for my kids, especially since my allergy girl has SAT testing this week. I need her to be on her A-game and let's face it, what's normaly in her lunch box isn't always loaded with Omega-3s and other brain boosters, although I do try to give her semi-healthy stuff. Anyway, I came across these on a site I visit often and since my girls are kind of sick of the usual PB&J sandwich, I thought I'd try these as a variation and a more healthy option. I tweaked it a little bit to fit our standard of allergy-free and here it is:

All-Fruit Jam or Jelly (or you could do sugar-free)

Peanut-free 'peanut butter' - (I use Soy Butter, but Sun Butter, Almond Butter, etc will work great, too!)

Rolled Oats

1TBL pure cocoa powder

In a food processer, mix equal parts Jam/Jelly and Soy Butter, along with 1TBL cocoa powder and pulse until combined. Add rolled oats a little at a time until mixture becomes easy to roll into balls. I used 1 cup of rolled oats per 1/4 c jam and 1/4 c soy butter and that seemed to work perfect. Then, roll mixture into 1-inch balls. You can roll them in crushed pecans, powdered sugar, coconut, etc. to make them look pretty or for an added flavor in there. And if you want to make it even healthier add 1 TBL of ground flax seed to the mixture OR roll the PBJ balls in ground flax seed. Be creative! I put mine in the refrigerator on a plate to firm up and once firm, I will transfer to a rubbermaid bowl with lid to keep them fresh.

This is a quick and easy way to get out of the PB&J sandwich rut! Try it! You'll like it!