Protein Energy Bites

Winters in North India can be quite harsh, January being the toughest month. One needs to keep warm not only externally but also internally and that's why we include lot of heat generating (warm foods) in our diet. So warm spices like ginger, nutmeg, cloves, pepper are used. Jaggery, dates and ghee become essential ingredients in our menu. Sesame seeds, peanuts are other essential elements in our food.

Keeping this in mind, I have created these Protein Rich Energy Bites to satiate not only sweet cravings but also provide warmth to our body.

These are sweetened with dates, which provide instant energy .

These would make the perfect snack or healthier dessert! I love them with my midafternoon tea also.

I hope you LOVE these energy bites! They’re:

Rich, Naturally sweet, Nutrient-packed, So satisfying, Easy to make, & Super delicious

I am part of a blogger group on Facebook

"Shhh Cooking Secretly Challenge".

This is a fun group, where every month a theme is given by one member...then all the members are divided into groups of two. Now these two partners give each other two secret ingredients based on the theme. Then each member prepares a dish using these two secret ingredients and posts the pic on the group without naming the dish. Others are asked to guess the ingredients. It's so much fun. You are challenged to create something new. You interact with so many members and make some wonderful friends.

This month's theme "Stick to Seeds" was proposed by a very versatile blogger Archana Gunjikar Potdar. She blogs at The Mad Scientist Kitchen. Archana focuses on healthy yet easy to make tasty food. Her efforts to reduce carbon footprint and zero waste in the kitchen

are commendable. You will find a mix of Indian, Fusion and World Cuisine on her blog.

I have bookmarked her Odia Ghuguni Recipe

My partner for this month is Kalyani Sri who blogs at Sizzling Taste Buds. Her focus is on creating healthy, mostly vegan and definitely delicious food. Do check out her Moroccan Chickpea Curry with Quinoa.

Kalyani gave me Sesame Seeds and Walnuts as secret ingredients where as I gave her Sesame oil and Chana Dal , using which she created this amazing Flaxseed-Molaga Podi

Ingredients

Dates 7 large

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds 1/4 cup

Roasted Sunflower Seeds 1/4 cup

Almond Meal 1/4 cup

Roasted Walnuts 1/4 cup finely chopped

Toasted Sesame Seeds 1/4 cup

Ginger powder 1/4 tsp

Method

1. Pulse sesame seeds in a food processor to get a coarse powder. Keep it aside.

2. Similarly pulse pumpkin seeds, Sunflower seeds in a food processor, till you get a coarse powder.

3. Keep it aside.

4. Don't pulse too much else the seeds will release oil and you will be left with a lump instead of coarse powder.

5. Remove the pits from dates and pulse them in the food processor till you get tiny bites.

6. Add pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds powder and half of sesame seeds powder, chopped walnuts , ginger powder to the dates and pulse for a few seconds to mix everything.

7. Tip it into a bowl.

8. Pinch a small piece and roll into a smooth ball.

9. Roll these in toasted sesame seeds powder which we had saved.

10. Keep them in an air tight box in a single layer.