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Pregnancy is kind of weird. Don’t get me wrong, I love being pregnant, growing our little guy (who’s going to be gaining about 1/2 pound a week now!!) and feeling all the kicks, but some stuff is weird. Like…
Your stomach jumping up and down and side to side, kicking people and making them in turn, jump too…
Going from a state of total energy to total zombie is no time flat… and…
Braxton hicks contractions.
Yes, they started. Monday afternoon to be exact. I just thought my stomach was just feeling heavy again, but then when I touched it and it was rock hard + kinda numb feeling, I knew something was different. I asked a gal at my work to explain what they felt like to her when she was pregnant and it was exactly what I felt. A quick call to my midwifes the next day when they came back again that afternoon confirmed it too. Luckily there’s no pain and they go away once I get home from work and rest/sleep, so it’s not labor happening (PHEW!).
Braxton hicks aren’t bad, it’s just your body getting ready for the big event… practicing. Practice makes perfect right? If so, keep on practicing body!
See… kinda strange but all good. š
I’m still feeling super tired every afternoon/evening, and now I’m starting to go crazy over treats. The lemon poppyseed muffins are dwindling away too quickly. I made a batch of no-bake cookies for my brother’s birthday and proceeded to eat spoonful after spoonful of batter before it set into an actual cookie. The neighbor brought over some scones to share with Jacob and I – three of them. He let me have two, him one. Very sweet, huh? š
My sweet tooth is getting out of control!
I needed something that was snacky but still made me feel good after eating them too. Something not too sugary, but would still give me my sweet fix. A bit of protein and fats would be nice too for a more balanced sweet treat.
What’s a girl to make?
Balls. And a lot of them.
The secret weapon in here are chickpeas. Yes beans and I still can’t stop eating them!
Beans, peanuts + peanut butter, a touch of maple syrup, chia seed and chocolate chips. Sounding pretty good huh? It is pretty dang good! Don’t just take my word for it. Pull out your food processor and make a batch. Then try to hide them from your husband in the back of the fridge because you really want to keep them all to yourself.
Do it.
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Protein Balls
Makes about 25 ballsIngredients
- 1/2 cup dry roasted peanuts
- 1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
- 3/4 cup natural peanut butter
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/3 cup chocolate chips
- 2 tbsp chia seed
- Pinch of sea salt
Directions
- Combine the peanut and chickpeas in the food processor. Pulse until both turn into a fine crumble. Add in the remaining ingredients. Pulse until fully combined.
- Roll mixture into balls, allow to refrigerate for 20-30 minutes to set, then devour!
- Keep extra balls in the fridge.
It’s so hard to stop at one, but since they’re packed with goodies it’s okay to eat a ton! <– my awesome attempt to rhyme
Have you ever added beans to a sweet treat?
I have a couple other times, but hadn’t yet to any I don’t bake. These were great!
Heather
Yum, I’ll definitely be making these! I love hiding beans in sweets š
You would never know!!
Finally remembered to buy peanuts so I could make these and then realized I was almost out of peanut butter!! I was set on making these for a snack so I just subbed almond butter instead. They came out great, just a hint of sweetness and nice and filling. Thanks for such a great snack recipe.
Nice sub in there! And I’m soooo glad you liked them. You’ll probably like my next batch I’m sharing very soon š
I made Chocolate Covered Katie’s Giant chocolate chip cookie that had chickpeas. I forgot how tasty it was! These look so addictive… well isn’t anything with chocolate and peanut butter? Maybe if you tell your husband that your goodies have chickpeas he won’t even be tempted.
He would definitely stay away if he knew!
those protein balls looked like pretzel balls for a second. Good thing they weren’t! These look like a great pick-me up during the work day.
Oh they definitely are the perfect pick me up!
What a different recipe, I never thought of adding chickapeas to the dough balls. I love that! I roll my balls really small so I can pop them in my mouth or throw them in a smoothie or on top of yogurt! Adding the chickapeas, I will get more bang for my buck!! Love this, love this, love this idea!!!
Oh and my sweet tooth is out of control too and it’s not because I’m pregnant, maybe I’m having sympathy pregnancy for you? That works as an excuse! š
Haha awesome sympathy pregnancy cravings :). Making them mini is a great idea, I should do that next time.
I’ve bookmarked a recipe to make brownies out of black beans but I haven’t made them yet. After seeing your latest muffin recipe, I made lemon poppyseed muffins. Delicious!
Yum, glad your muffins turned out well!!!
Oooooh boy, there’s soooo much to look forward to in pregnancy. haha The balls sounds wonderful. You had me at “peanut butter.”
Peanut butter makes everything better huh?
i’m all about peanut butter + chocolate!! needless to say, i’ll be making these in the very near future. š i’ve used chickpeas in choc covered katie’s “healthy cookie dough dip”, but had never thought of using beans in a sweet treat before that.
Hmmmm gotta try her dip!
Fun fun! I had braxton hicks for what seemed like half my pregnancy haha. I always thought it felt like she was curling into a ball really hard. These look so yummy. The chickpea usage is so fun! I made black bean brownies once and thought they were very mehhh…
Still haven’t tried black bean brownies…. heard mixed reviews on them. And I’m glad my BH didn’t start until now, only 1/3 of my pregnancy instead of half š
I’ve never added beans to sweet treats but have seen countless people do it! These looks great and I need to have go to sweet snacks like this around the house. I tend to snack on dark chocolate but that gets old after a while!
Dark chocolate is always a go to for me…. can it really get old? š
Those sound awesome! Glad to hear everything is still going well for you and Hunter š