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Bone Broth Chocolate Protein Bites :: Gluten, Dairy, Egg, Nut, & Bean Free!

September 6, 2023

Quick, on-the-go protein bites to hold busy kids over until lunchtime, for before and after practice re-fueling, or satiating bedtime snacks without the blood sugar spike!

Bone Broth Chocolate Protein Bites :: Gluten, Dairy, Egg, Nut, & Bean Free!

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Big school transitions…and a new snack need!

So many of you that have been following RGN for years, know that when I started this blog, my oldest was going into kindergarten. Well, she’s off to her freshman year of high school this year, and that means a new school! She has taken it all in the most confident, inspiring stride – I truly don’t remember having this much poise and confidence when I was 14! Her new school has been fantastic (she has come home everyday saying she loves it!), but we ran into a problem the first week when it came to the length of time between when she eats breakfast and that 2nd lunch she was assigned to…

Bone Broth Chocolate Protein Bites :: Gluten, Dairy, Egg, Nut, & Legume Free!

Necessity….the mother of all invention!

I cannot tell you how many recipes on this blog have been created because of necessity. A need for a more nutrient dense version of an old classic. Or a healthier spin on something we were used to having. Or a food sensitivity swap for a friend or reader that I wanted to help with. These protein bites have been my solution to my new high schooler not being allowed to have a snack in between classes in the hallway, in class, or at her locker. She is allowed to quick pop into the cafeteria if she needs to eat something during the 5 minutes she has in between classes, and quite frankly making a growing 14 year old kid go from eating breakfast at 6:30am to catch the 7am bus, to having lunch at 12:30 without a quick snack is one of the most absurd things I’ve heard of! Talk about messing up metabolisms! She has a quick 5 minutes in between classes, and these packed out little bites are working perfectly to hold her over in the short amount of time that she has.

Protein Powder brands

Really any protein powders out there will probably work as long as you play around with the amounts to the consistency for rolling up little bite sized balls. We keep bone broth protein in our house since I don’t tolerate whey or pea protein, which are the typical sources of protein powders you’ll find. Use what you have, and really just watch those sneaky ingredients that can happen! If you want to try bone broth protein, I use the Designs For Health Bone Broth Protein. You could also try Ancient Nutrient Bone Broth Protein, which is another good brand.

Let’s talk about the other 2 protein sources

These little bites have a very simple, short ingredient list. Mostly because I want to WANT to make them! I foresee these being a weekly prep item to help my high schooler with this very necessary snack need in the short amount of time she has, and I don’t want a fussy prep. My younger girls have also been loving them, so I plan to use them as little lunchbox bites, as well as after gymnastics practice fuel! Alongside the bone broth protein powder, I have added in nut butter (use seed butter if your school is nut free) to do the job of binding, as well a some hemp hearts to bump up the protein content, and provide a little texture.

A quick note on the honey

Because I know I’ll get questions from people wanting to either eliminate the honey, or use something different, let’s talk about the 2 tablespoons of honey. My protein powder is sweetened with stevia, so I’m actually not using the honey to sweeten the bites. I found that the little bit of honey helped with binding the protein bites better with a little moisture. You could potentially add a bit more nut butter to accomplish this if you have to keep these lower carb. I also wanted to add the carbohydrate to these bites to help balance macros a little, and to help with a little energy boost for my kids. The honey accomplishes that for me since the protein powder I have is not a good source of carbohydrates.

How to make Bone Broth Protein Bites

Here’s the easy part! You’re literally just going to stir up the ingredients in a mixing bowl, and roll them up into bite sized balls! That’s it! I have added extra cocoa powder to the mixture to make them a deeper chocolate flavor, or you can also add in mini chocolate chips if you like! Originally when I was making these, I was doing about 1/4 cup hemp and 1/4 cup oats – this does work if you want to make them that way! I was going for more protein so ended up at the 1/2 cup total hemp and no oats, but that is personal preference.

How much protein per bite?

I make about 22 bites out of this recipe – I like to make them on the smaller side so my high schooler can just pop them in her mouth and go. At this size, each small bite is about 5.3 grams of protein. You could potentially make them bigger for more protein per bite, or just pack a few bites at a time so there is more substantial protein count.

Print Recipe

Bone Broth Protein Bites :: Gluten, Dairy, Egg, Nut, Legume Free!

Author: Renee Kohley – Raising Generation Nourished

Ingredients

1/2 cup Bone Broth Protein I use the Designs For Health Chocolate Protein Powder, but any bone broth protein will work
2/3 cup drippy, room temperature nut or seed butter I use peanut butter most of the time, but you can use sunbutter if you are nut free or are in a nut free school. Or, any other nut butter if you tolerate nuts.
1/2 cup hemp hearts
2 tbsp raw honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp sea salt

Instructions

Stir all of the ingredients in a small mixing bowl until combined.
Roll the protein bites into balls and store in an air tight container in the pantry.

Notes

If you want to try bone broth protein, I use the Designs For Health Bone Broth Protein. You could also try Ancient Nutrient Bone Broth Protein, which is another good brand.
I make about 22 bites out of this recipe – I like to make them on the smaller side so my high schooler can just pop them in her mouth and go without extra bites. At this size, each small bite is about 5.3 grams of protein. You could potentially make them bigger for more protein per bite, or just pack a few bites at a time so there is more substantial protein count.
We are keeping these protein bites in the pantry – my oldest is packing a container of them to keep in her locker to grab and go when she needs. These bites should be good in the pantry for up to 2 months as there is nothing perishable in the ingredient list.
I have added extra cocoa powder to the mixture to make them a deeper chocolate flavor!
You can also add in mini chocolate chips if you like!
Originally when I was making these, I was doing about 1/4 cup hemp and 1/4 cup oats – this does work if you want to make them that way! I was going for more protein so ended up at the 1/2 cup total hemp and no oats, but that is personal preference.

More real food recipes you might like!

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Copycat Trader Joe’s® Everything But the Bagel Nut Duo!

February 5, 2022

All of the yummy “Everything but the Bagel” flavor with a cleaner oil and no corn syrup! Copycat that Trader Joe’s® Nut Duo for your own pantry!

Copycat Trader Joe's® Everything But the Bagel Nut Duo!

A Trader Joe’s® trip, and a fun, new snack!

Every first of the month, a couple of friends of mine and I hop in the car and head out for our monthly Costco and Trader Joe’s trip! We live a good 45 minute drive from the closest of either of these stores, so we make a morning of it once a month, and try to stock up until the next month. I am not a huge TJ’s shopper – I’ll grab a couple things here or there, but every once and a while I’ll find a fun snack, and this month was one of them. I was cautiously hopeful as I turned the bag of the TJ’s “Everything But The Bagel” Nut Duo to check out the ingredients…because my usual disappointment with these kind of stores, and these kind of snacks, is that the oils used are junk, and there is usually added sugar. This one checked both of those disappointing boxes, and I set the bag back down. I couldn’t stop thinking about the fun flavor that those nuts could be though….

A new kitchen experiment!

While I continued my shopping, I passed the spice isle, and decided to grab the “Everything but the Bagel” seasoning, and just try to make my own. Trail mixes are so easy to put together, and while the convenience of grabbing a bag off the shelf is always nice, making my own would save the budget *big-time* (because these specialty items are always over-priced), and I could also add a healthy snack to our pantry rotation on a regular basis instead of just once, because the ingredients are fantastic when you make it at home!

Why do food companies use these ingredients, and why do we want to avoid them?

Cheap and readily available. It really boils down to the dollar bill. Cheap oils like sunflower, soy, and safflower oils, as well as sweeteners like corn syrup are so cheap and easy to get, that it really hits the bottom line for these companies in a good way for their profits. When it comes to sweeteners, corn syrup is as cheap as it gets, and it tastes super sweet, so they don’t need to add a lot to make it super palatable to people. Corn syrup sky rockets blood sugar even more than table sugar, and is almost always GMO, so it is just really important to avoid if you can. Sunflower oil “looks” healthy – I mean sunflower seeds are healthy right?! But the way these seed and veg oils are processed makes them super unstable on the shelf, and they go rancid so quickly. When we eat these kind of rancid oils on a regular basis, it causes a lot of inflammation in the body. Free radicals fly everywhere and it inflames. (One caveat to this, would be if you see a truly cold-pressed – sometimes called expeller pressed – sunflower oil. The cold pressed process on the sunflower oil keeps the integrity of the fats so they don’t go rancid – this is very hard to find in products though!)

So how do we replace the bad stuff, and still get a yummy product?

It is so much easier than you think! Swap the sunflower oil for a healthier oil, and swap the “sweet” for a more natural sweetener (or leave it out). In the case of this nut trail mix, the oil part was easy. I almost always use coconut oil for my trail mixes because it is so good for our bodies, and it doesn’t change the flavor to us. If you are really sensitive to the flavor of coconut, you might want to use butter or avocado oil. Even a good olive oil would be fine for this recipe. As far as swapping the corn syrup, I tried the recipe without a sweetener at first, because I figured it was a savory snack, and didn’t need it. I was right on the flavor, BUT there is something the corn syrup did for the TJ’s snack that was lacking in my first attempt. The stick factor!

How to get that crunchy “stick” to the trail mix

Because the “Everything But the Bagel” Seasoning is larger pieces, you really need a way to get it to stick to the nuts, or it just ends up in a pile on the sheet pan. Most trail mixes that need to make a “candy like” crunch coating use egg whites. And you could totally do that and leave the sweetener out in this recipe if you want. BUT…I have so many egg free readers, and I really wanted to figure out a way to make this without the egg whites. I tried coconut sugar to start, since it has a lower glycemic index, but the candy like coating did not happen, so the seasoning fell to the bottom of the pan. Then I remembered that the secret to the crunchy coating on my Coconut Cluster recipe was maple syrup, so I tried that…success! It’s really just a couple of tablespoons for the whole batch, and I’d say that is totally worth it!

Egg white method

The trail mix can be made without the maple syrup, but the seasoning does not stick to the nuts very well in my experience. It is worth the stick to have that little crunch and flavor together! If you need it to be sugar free, and can have eggs, you can swap the maple syrup for 1 whisked egg white, and that will accomplish the same thing. I have so many egg free readers though, so I had to figure out a way to make this without the whites! If you can have eggs, the egg whites is a great way to get the seasoning to stick without using maple syrup.

Can I use any nut combo, or swap for seeds?

Absolutely! The Trader Joe’s® “Nut Duo” uses almonds and cashews, so that is what I used – but please use whatever nuts you have in your pantry. And I would actually encourage switching the combo up every time you make it, so that you are getting different nut or seed nutrients! If you are nut free, use pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, hemp, etc! I really think it would be a fun mix to change things up for you!