I made these for my family this week, with my 2 daughters in mind, both working very physical jobs this summer, and one whose weight is lagging behind. I used to make these for my son when he was a small boy. He loved them! I made them a few times when my daughters were small, but for whatever reasons, I stopped making them.
Anyways . . .
I had been pricing "energy" products that would be easy for my daughters to grab on the way out the door in the mornings, things they could eat either as breakfast, or as a snack later in the AM.
You can buy cheapie granola bars for about 20 cents each. Or, those Kind, but not-so-kind-to-your-wallet, bars for over a buck each. I was specifically looking for a high quality, nutritious, protein-dense bar or product, so that puts me at the high end of the price spectrum, unfortunately.
That's when I pulled up a couple of old recipes from years' past. I priced out my ingredients, shopping 2 different stores (plus my pantry), to get the best price possible for my area. I found powdered milk at Fred Meyer (and with the Senior discount, to boot!), and honey and raisins at Cash & Carry. I had peanut butter and granola at home.
My complete cost to make 1 batch of 24 of these little energy balls (including ingredients I had at home) was $2.12. That works out to almost 9 cents per 110 calorie ball. Those cheapie granola bars have about 90 calories each, at 20 cents.
As I was specifically looking for protein, I also compared protein values between cheapie granola bars and my Peanut Butter Energy Balls. A small, 90 calorie granola bar contains 1 gram of protein. My homemade balls have 3.3 grams of protein each, over triple the store-bought item.
It's not entirely fair to compare Kind bars to peanut butter balls, as Kind bars are fruit and nut bars. However, stay tuned. I'll be pulling out my fruit and nut bar recipe next week, and give you the cost breakdown then. You just knew that was coming, didn't you?!
If you don't happen to have a Peanut Butter Energy Ball recipe, and would like to try mine, here it is:
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup dry milk powder*
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup raisins
something dry and flakey like wheat germ, grated coconut, cereal crumbs, or granola to roll bars in -- about 1/3 cup total
*if you are using instant powdered milk, you'll want to measure it, then run through a food processor to break down the tiny bits into a finer powder, before mixing with peanut butter. It doesn't need to be perfectly ground, just mostly so. Non-instant dry milk is a fine powder, mostly available in health food stores, and often used in baking (adding to doughs).
In a large bowl, stir together peanut butter, milk powder, honey and raisins. Divide "dough" into quarters, then each quarter into 6 portions (yielding 24 portions all together). Roll between the palms of your hands into balls. Then roll each into your dry and flakey stuff. Refrigerate.
Some people roll these in melted chocolate, for a healthier confection. Also yummy. But as I was looking for a snack replacement and not a candy-type item, I used homemade granola.
One of the aspects of making these products at home that I like is this -- if I buy a commercial product, once that box is empty, they're gone. But if I buy the ingredients to make something comparable, once the final item is eaten, I can turn to my pantry and make another batch. Or, and also appealing, I can use those same ingredients in other recipes.
