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These delicious no-bake oatmeal protein balls are packed with wholesome ingredients like peanut butter, honey, and flaxseed. Ready in just 30 minutes, they’re the perfect energy-boosting treat for busy moms and hungry kids alike!
Anytime I can create a snack that poses as a sweet treat but is secretly full of hearty, nutritious goodness, it’s a successful day. These Oatmeal Protein Bites are chock-full of healthy fats, protein, and complex carbs with chia seeds, oats, flaxseed, and collagen peptides.
Flavors of honey, peanut butter, and mini chocolate chips keep things fun and delicious. This is a perfect, well-balanced snack for post-workout, kids going to sports practices, or between meals.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Quick and Simple Preparation: Just 10 minutes of active prep time followed by a brief chill in the refrigerator. No oven required, making these perfect for summer days when you don’t want to heat up the kitchen.
- Nutrient Powerhouse: Each bite delivers a perfect balance of protein, healthy fats, and complex carbohydrates. The collagen peptides add protein without affecting taste, while flaxseed and chia seeds provide omega-3 fatty acids.
- Kid-Approved Taste: The combination of peanut butter, honey, and mini chocolate chips creates a flavor profile that children absolutely love, while the nutritional profile makes parents happy too!
- Perfectly Portable: These bite-sized energy balls travel well in lunchboxes, workout bags, or purses for on-the-go snacking without the mess.
- Customizable to Your Family’s Tastes: Don’t like coconut? Skip it! Prefer almond butter? Swap it in! This flexible recipe adapts to your family’s preferences while maintaining that perfect snackable texture.
🍽️ I love that these energy bites are a great make-ahead and batch cooking snack option and that there are so many ways to customize them!
Recipe Ingredients
- Peanut butter — smooth or crunchy
- Honey
- Oatmeal — I like using old-fashioned oats.
- Coconut flakes — use unsweetened for a lower-sugar snack
- Flaxseed — You will need the ground flaxseed, or whole seeds can be ground in a coffee grinder.
- Vital Proteins collagen peptides
- Chia seeds
- Mini chocolate chips
- Vanilla extract
See the recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities.
How to Make Oatmeal Protein Balls
- Mix the peanut butter and honey together in a bowl.
- Add all of the other ingredients and mix well.
- Chill for 30 minutes.
- Scoop out and roll into balls.
Recipe FAQs
Absolutely! Just make sure to use a nut butter with a similar consistency to peanut butter. Almond butter or cashew butter work wonderfully, but avoid options that are too runny as they may not hold the balls together properly.
When stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator, these oatmeal protein balls will stay fresh for up to 2 weeks. You can also freeze them for several months, making them perfect for batch preparation.
Yes! While the collagen peptides add a protein boost without affecting the taste or texture, you can omit them or replace them with your preferred unflavored protein powder. You might need to adjust the wet ingredients slightly to maintain the right consistency.
Expert Tips
- Extra Protein: Collagen peptides come in powder form but contribute no additional taste or texture, making them the ideal boost of protein that’s undetectable to children. I’ve been using Vital Proteins collagen peptides for years and love how they support hair, skin, nails, and joint health.
- Proper Moisture: If the protein balls aren’t sticking together after the resting period, add more honey or peanut butter, stir well, and try rolling again. Sometimes, it just needs a little more of the wet ingredients to hold together well. And the moisture in the peanut butter will depend on the brand or type that you use.
- Use a Cookie Scoop: For uniform sizing, use a cookie dough scoop to portion out the mixture before rolling. This ensures consistent balls and speeds up the process tremendously.
- Wet Your Hands Slightly: If the mixture starts sticking to your hands during rolling, slightly dampening your palms with cold water can make the process much cleaner and faster.
More Favorite Easy Snack Recipes
I probably make energy bites a couple times a month and just try to switch up the flavors each time. Here are some of the ones we’ve enjoyed recently!
- Peanut Butter Protein Balls: Quick to make, delicious, and a healthy treat to have on hand to munch on.
- Pumpkin Date Balls: With three fantastic flavor combinations to try!
- Blueberry Muffin Date Balls: Full of protein and good fat and made with whole foods.
More Healthy Snack Recipes to Consider
Dip Recipes
Lemon Garlic Hummus Recipe Without Tahini
Healthy Snacks
Medjool Date Protein Bites: No-Bake Sweet Treat
Healthy Snacks
Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Balls
Did you make this recipe? Leave a ⭐️ review and share it on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest!
No-Bake Oatmeal Protein Balls
Ingredients
- ½ cup peanut butter
- ⅓ cup honey
- 1 cup dry oatmeal, (I like old fashioned oats.)
- ⅔ cup unsweetened coconut flakes
- ½ cup ground flaxseed
- 1 scoop Vital Proteins collagen peptides
- 3 tablespoons chia seeds
- 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Add the peanut butter and honey to a medium bowl, and stir to combine well.
- Add all of the other ingredients, and mix to combine well. Stick the bowl in the fridge and let it chill for about half an hour. This resting time helps to ensure that the balls will stick together when rolled.
- After the chilling time, take a large tablespoon of the mixture in your hand, and roll into a ball. Repeat with remaining oat mixture.
- If your balls aren’t sticking together after the resting period, you can add a little more honey or peanut butter, stir well, and try rolling again. Sometimes, it just needs a little more of the wet ingredients to hold together well. And the moisture in the peanut butter will depend on the brand/type that you use.
- Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks or in the freezer much longer.
Notes
- I’ve been using Vital Proteins brand for a few years and love it. It adds no flavor, texture, or sugar to this recipe—just added protein. This is the only protein powder my kids will eat without detection!
- This recipe offers lots of flexibility. Don’t like coconut? Skip it! Add a few nuts instead of the chocolate chips, or toss in your favorite dried fruit. The goal is to use enough peanut butter and honey to make everything stick together, so adjust accordingly and enjoy.
- If swapping out the peanut butter, use another nut butter that is similar in consistency to peanut butter. Some cashew or oat butters have a good thickness. Stay away from butters that are too runny to ensure the consistency is just right for rolling into balls.
- Use a cookie dough scoop to get the perfect amount of mixture to roll into balls—smaller one for little people or bigger ones for bigger snacks!
I didn’t have any coconut but these still came out great. My family has been enjoying them as a quick snack before early morning workouts and/or dessert after dinner.
Aren’t they a delight! I have been skipping the coconut too because I’m out. Works great! Thanks for the review Barbara!
I appreciate you for this post.
Are the peptides necessary for this recipe to work?
I’m not familiar with this ingredient and so looked it up. According to WebMD, “there is no good scientific evidence to support most of [the] purported uses.”
https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-1606/collagen-peptides
Since the recipe looks interesting I am wondering if I left out just that one ingredient would the bites still form or would they be too wet (or dry) with the removal of this one ingredient?
They’ll be fine without it!
Hi Melissa! These oat energy bites sound amazing!
The nutrition label doesn’t count the fiber – can you clarify it?
Thankyou, Bridget
It’s just an ap I use, feel free to use something like my fitness pal to calculate nutrition info that you need!
How much is a scoop of collagen?
It’s 1.5 tablespoons!
These are amazing!! My son asked for these after a friend had them at school, so I found your recipe and he loves them!! Thank you!! I doubled the collagen powder and left out the coconut and flaxseed.
They sure look good.
What does callagen peptides do you for you?
The collagen peptides add protein without changing the flavor. They’re great for hair, skin, nail, and joint health!
These look so yummy! I think I’ll make them this week!
Your kids will love them to V-ron! I can’t wait to hear about it!