Honey Peanut Butter Oat Bites
By Jude Horak, UC patient. Remission. Snack.
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 0 min
- Total
- 15 min
- Serves
- 8
I started making these because I needed something in the fridge that was not a granola bar. Most bars are packed with nuts, seeds and dried fruit, which are exactly the things that stayed on my avoid list the longest, and the ones without them tend to be mostly sugar. These bites are oats, smooth peanut butter and honey, pressed into balls with a few mini dark chocolate chips folded in, and that is the entire ingredient list apart from salt, cinnamon and vanilla. They take fifteen minutes and no oven. The honey is the reason I file them under remission: it is high in fructose, which I kept to a bare minimum during my flare, and three tablespoons across sixteen bites is a small enough amount per bite that it has not been a problem for me since. The chocolate chips are the other remission element, and the tips cover how to make a plainer version. I keep a container of these for the afternoon slump and for the drive home from anything.
Why it works for UC
Oatmeal is mostly soluble fiber and is one of the most gentle grains available; quick oats are the finest cut, which makes them the easiest version to break down in a no-bake snack where they are not cooked. Peanut butter, smooth rather than crunchy, provides protein and fat without whole nut pieces, and it is what holds the bites together. Honey is the sweetener and the binder, kept to under a teaspoon per bite so the fructose load per serving stays low. Dark chocolate in a small quantity, plain and without mix-ins, is the kind of chocolate that tends to sit fine in remission.
Ingredient pages: Oatmeal, Peanut butter, Honey, Dark Chocolate
Ingredients
- 1 cup quick-cooking oats
- 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon salt (skip if your peanut butter is salted)
- 3 tablespoons mini dark chocolate chips
- 1 to 2 tablespoons lactose-free or almond milk, only if the mixture is too dry
Method
- 1Warm the peanut butter and honey together in a microwave-safe bowl for 20 seconds, then stir until smooth and pourable. Warming them makes the mixture combine evenly with the oats instead of leaving dry pockets.
- 2Stir in the vanilla, cinnamon and salt, then add the oats and mix with a sturdy spoon until every oat is coated and the mixture holds together when pressed. If it crumbles, add milk a tablespoon at a time.
- 3Let the mixture cool for 5 minutes so the chocolate chips do not melt on contact, then fold them in. Refrigerate the bowl for 15 minutes; chilled dough rolls into tidy balls instead of sticking to your hands.
- 4Scoop level tablespoons and roll into balls between your palms, dampening your hands with water if they stick. You should get about 16 bites. Set them on a plate or a parchment-lined container.
- 5Chill for 30 minutes before eating so they firm up. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 2 months; frozen bites thaw in about 10 minutes on the counter.
Tips and swaps
- Flare version: leave out the chocolate chips, use maple syrup in place of the honey, and pulse the oats in a blender a few times so they are finer. One bite at a time, with something else, was how I tested them.
- Rolled oats work but the bites are chewier and looser. Pulse rolled oats briefly in a food processor to get closer to the quick-oat texture.
- Two bites are a serving. They are dense in calories from the peanut butter, which is the point when appetite is low, but a handful at once is more fat than I want in one sitting.
- Smooth almond butter is a fine swap if peanuts are a problem. It is slightly runnier, so you may need an extra tablespoon of oats.
What a serving gives you
Two bites give around 190 calories, 6 grams of protein and 10 grams of fat, nearly all from the peanut butter, plus about 2 grams of fiber from the oats. That is a small, calorie-dense snack, which is exactly what I want between meals on days when a full plate is too much. The honey and chocolate add roughly 8 grams of sugar per serving, a modest amount that I have found sits fine alongside the protein and fat.
Questions about this recipe
Can I add nuts, seeds or dried fruit?
Chopped nuts, chia seeds, flax and dried cranberries are the standard energy bite add-ins, and all four are on my caution or avoid list even in remission because they are rough, insoluble fiber. That is the whole reason this recipe exists. If you have tested nuts and they sit fine for you, a tablespoon of finely chopped almonds is a reasonable experiment. I would add one thing at a time and keep the amount small, because the bites are already dense.
Is honey a problem for people with UC?
Honey is high in fructose, which some people absorb poorly, and unabsorbed fructose draws water into the bowel and feeds gas. That is why I kept it to nearly nothing during my flare. In remission, the amount here, about half a teaspoon per bite, is small enough that it has not bothered me, and it is eaten with peanut butter and oats rather than on its own. If honey is a known trigger for you, maple syrup swaps in one for one and binds just as well.
