Chocolates and Crockpots: Chocolate Energy Bites

Hey Y'all and Happy Monday to ya! Hope you had an amazing weekend! These past couple days I got to spend so much time with my Hub, and it was wonderful. Nothing beats laying on the couch with your sweetie doing...well nothing!

I guess we didn't do nothing. Friday night we went to a special church service and got to spend some quality time with the Big Guy upstairs. It was nice. Saturday and Sunday were full of couch sitting and cooking. Hub was doing the couch sitting, I was doing the cooking :) Sunday was also my wonderful father-in-laws 71st birthday. He doesn't look a day over 60, and he doesn't act a day over 30! I love him so much and am so lucky to have such a great FIL who I know will one day be a terrific grandpa!

So as some of you may know I am a Zumba instructor. It is seriously the best job in the world! Many people laugh when they find this out because they know what a baking fool I am. But I simply tell them I Zumba because I eat, not the other way around. I love food too much to cut back due to my weight. So I workout 7 days a week and eat like 7 times a day!

Since being a fitness instructor requires me to have tons of energy (which I usually always do!) I was looking to make a fun snack that I could have before workouts that was healthy and delicious. Not an easy feat.

Then I walked into Sam's Club for the second time EVER the other day, first time being when I got my membership a couple weeks ago, and there was a huge bag of energy trail mix starring at me! I knew it was a sign and bought it up, along with 108 rolls of toilet paper and 5 pounds of shredded cheese! Score! I came home and I whipped up these yummy Chocolate Energy Bites!

Now I know they may not be the most attractive things you've ever seen, but I've yet to have someone eat one and not love it! Like my big sister ate one a couple days ago after her workout and she was mad I only brought one for her! Total compliment to me!

To be honest, I'm still a pretty new cook/baker. I learn new things every time I make a different recipe and am constantly messing up. So even though I didn't make these look perfect, they still taste pretty darn perfect!

I'm totally obsessed with these things. They've got my two favorites...chocolate and peanut butter. They give me a great boost before my workouts and are crazy healthy too. They may not have great looks, but they taste amazing, and that's what's important to me!

Ingredients:
1 Cup energy trail mix (mine is pictured below)
1/2 Cup old fashioned oats
1 tsp cinnamon
1 Cup chocolate chips, melted
1/2 Cup peanut butter
1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract

Directions:
Line a baking sheet with wax paper. Make sure the sheet will fit in your freezer. Set aside.

In a medium bowl combine the trail mix and oats.

Sprinkle the cinnamon over that.

Melt the chocolate chips until smooth, about 1 minute stirring at 30 seconds.

Right before you add the melted chocolate, drop the peanut butter on the oats and stir the vanilla into the chocolate.

Pour the melted chocolate over the peanut butter and trail mix. Stir until fully combined.

Scoop out balls of the mix using a cookie dough scoop or a spoon and drop them onto the wax paper.

Let set for about an hour in the freezer until you eat one. I grab one every morning before a workout and they give me that quick boost I'm looking for. Plus they're delicious, so that helps!

Need a scoop? Here's the one I use.