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This No-Bake Energy Bites recipe is easy to make, full of feel-good ingredients, and irresistibly delicious!
Friends, have you tried this no bake energy bites recipe? ♡
It’s one of my all-time favorite recipes here on the blog, and one that I’ve personally made about a zillion times since I first published it here eight years ago.
I love these little energy bites because they are easy to make with simply pantry ingredients that I almost always have on hand. They are super easy to mix up and roll into cute little energy balls. (Or if you would like to save time, you can press the mixture into a parchment-covered baking dish, and then cut them into energy bars.) They are the perfect make-ahead recipe to keep on hand for healthy snacking or breakfasts. And most importantly, they are just irresistibly good.
Over the years, thousands of our readers have made and loved this classic energy bites recipe too. So I wholeheartedly recommend giving it a try!
No Bake Energy Bites Recipe | 1-Minute Video
No Bake Energy Bites Ingredients:
To make this no bake energy bites recipe, you will need the following ingredients:
Old-fashioned oats: Also called rolled oats — these will serve as the base ingredient for our energy bites.
Shredded coconut: Which I highly recommend toasting — either briefly in the oven or in a sauté pan — before adding to the energy bites. (Just be sure that they have cooled before adding in the chocolate chips, or the chocolate may heat and turn a bit melty.)
Creamy peanut butter: I have used both traditional creamy peanut butter and natural creamy peanut butter in this recipe, and both work!
Ground flaxseed: To add some extra protein, fiber and omega-3s to our energy bites.
Semisweet chocolate chips: I photographed this recipe with standard-sized semisweet chips, but mini semisweet chips mix in easier.
Honey: To add some natural sweetness and also help to bind the energy balls together.
Chia seeds (optional): Feel free to skip the chia seeds, if you do not have any on hand. But I love adding in a tablespoon or so when I do!
How To Make Energy Balls:
To make these energy bites, simply…
Stir everything together. Stir all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl until thoroughly combined.
Chill. Cover the mixing bowl and chill in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours, or until the mixture is chilled.*
Roll into balls. Roll into mixture into 1-inch balls.
Serve. Then enjoy immediately! Or refrigerate in a sealed container for up to 1 week, or freeze for up to 3 months.
If you have trouble getting the energy balls to hold together, I recommend adding in more peanut butter to make the mixture a bit more sticky. Or if you would rather, you can also just press the mixture into a square baking dish to make flat energy bars instead of round energy balls.
Possible Energy Bites Variations:
There are all sorts of ways that you can customize this energy bites recipe, so feel free to get creative! For example, you are welcome to…
Make energy bars: Press the mixture firmly into a parchment-lined 8×8-inch baking pan, chill, and then slice into energy bars (instead of rolling the mixture into energy balls).
Use a different nut or seed butter: Use almond butter, cashew butter, sunflower seed butter, or any other nut/seed butters that you prefer in place of peanut butter.
Omit the coconut: I’ve heard from many of you over the years who don’t love coconut. If that’s the case, no prob, just omit the coconut and add in an extra shake of oats instead.
Add spices: If you would like to give these energy bites some extra flavor, feel free to add in a few pinches of ground cinnamon or some pumpkin pie spice.
More Healthy Snack Recipes:
Looking for more healthy snack inspiration? Here are a few of my favorite snack recipes!
Stir everything together. Stir all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl until thoroughly combined.
Chill. Cover the mixing bowl and chill in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours, or until the mixture is chilled. (This will help the mixture stick together more easily.)
Roll into balls. Roll into mixture into 1-inch balls.
Serve. Then enjoy immediately! Or refrigerate in a sealed container for up to 1 week, or freeze for up to 3 months.
Prep Time: The prep time listed does not include time for the mixture to chill. To speed up the chilling, I recommend spreading the mixture out on a small baking sheet and popping it in the freezer for 20-30 minutes until the mixture is cool.
I added some soft extra virgin coconut oil to mine. It allowed me to cut back on the honey and EVCO has so many excellent health properties. I also added some almond meal in place of some of the oats. They were delicious and the whole family loved them. They’re a great snack to make with the kids.
I went to the store and bought all of the ingredients. I’m a college student and didn’t have anything but oatmeal and peanut butter. Just tried my first bite and it’s delicious! And so easy to make! I can’t wait to share with my roommates. I used quaker oaks, maple syrup, chocolate chips, coconut flakes, peanut butter, flax seeds, and vanilla extract. Super simple!
Instead of 1 cup oatmeal, I used 1/2 cup each of oatmeal and rice krispies, and instead of the 1/2 cup each of flaxseed & chocolate chips, I used 1/3 cup each of chopped walnuts, slivered almonds and sunflower seeds. In place of the 1 tablespoon of chia seeds, I used wheat germ. They freeze well and I take out one every morning to take to work.
My father-in-law hates coconut so I substituted with three honey graham crackers and they ended up being AMAZING!!!! Just and FYI for anyone who is not a fan of coconut. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe, everyone raves about these!
I have made these several times. My girls love them! I usually omit the coconut and substitute Rice Krispie cereal.
Also, I dont wait for them to cool in the fridge. I just use a cookie scoop and call it good.
Just made these one word …… YUM! As a personal trainer and fitness instructor I’m always trying to find tasty substitutes for all the processed artificial things out there that I can recommend to clients, this one is going into my recipe book.
These are thee devil! I devoured 5 alone at my lunch break today. Substitute peanut butter for almond butter and you’ve got yourself a ‘you can’t only eat one’ energy ball..
The best, worst thing for you!
I made these, my sister and husband love them as well. I made a few switches/additions. I toasted the oatmeal in a dry skillet until golden brown and sprinkle with cinnamon and let cool. I added sunflower seeds/no chia. I did mostly wheat germ and the remainder flax seed. Will be making these often. I am going to try pumpkin, dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds. Yummy. Thanks.
I just made these and they are so good! I am on a healthy eating and calorie counting eating plan. Any idea of the calorie count on these? I am so excited to make these my go to when I have a sweet craving! Please help me on this so I can keep track of what I’m eating. Thanks!
I just made 2 batches of these and loved both of them! For the first batch, I used: oats, maple syrup, honey, ground flaxseed, chopped almonds, peanut butter, vanilla extract, & chocolate chips. For the second batch, I used: oats, honey, toasted coconut flakes, white chocolate chips, dried cranberries, chia seeds, & vanilla extract. I calculated the nutritional value of each to be an average of 120 calories, 5 grams of protein, 15 carbs, and 4 g fat. My favorite were the ones with dried cranberries! Thanks for the recipe!
Hooray! I LOVE these little guys. I have made them a few times with different combinations of nut butters and sometimes replacing chocolate chips with raisins or dried blueberries. They are so good. Even my roommate, who normally turns her nose up at my “weird hippie food”, loved these.
The only thing I wish is that I could make them without traces of nuts. Any suggestions for replacements? I am a teacher and I hesitate to bring these to school because of allergies, but I love them sooo much.
Jill —
@Hilary, my husband is allergic to nuts and we use a peanut butter substitute such as sunbutter, wow butter, or soy nut butter, then check all the ingredients to make sure none of them say they are processed/made in a shared facility or on shared equipment with peanuts/tree nuts. it takes some footwork, though, to make sure you have safe brands. Hershey’s chips (the last I checked) are safe for nuts, and oats usually are too, but the chia seeds/flaxseed meal/wheat germ can be trickier.
Jenny —
I would suggest that you make your own sunbutter as the stuff I found at the store (Winco) showed that it might have traces of nuts. (sunflower seeds+ olive oil in a food processor=sunbutter). I read that using raw sunflowers is better because the roasted ones are already cooked and that prevents the creaminess.
However, I prefer the taste of roasted!
I have been eating these for months and absolutely LOVE them! Quick question… do you think I could use steel cut oats instead of rolled oats? Steel cut oats are far heavier and denser, so I’m not sure how it would balance. Thanks!
Me, my husband, and our kids LOVE these! I made the first batch last week and we’ve just been making and eating batch after batch since then. We are having fun playing around with what to put in them. Thanks for sharing!
From my calculations if you make the recipe as shown (I used 62% dark chocolate and shredded it) and if you divide them into 25 balls they’re about 87 calories a piece.
Calories per ball = 93 (based on a batch of 24)*
Carbs = 10g; Fat = 5g; Protein = 2g; Sodium = 16mg; Sugar = 6g; Fiber = 2g.
*I made this recipe as indicated except I used oat bran instead of wheat germ. I also used honey, chia seeds and milk chocolate chips. Depending on your substitutions, you could probably reduce the fat & sugar if you wanted to.
These are very good! I did exact recipe but did leave out the optional chia seeds just cuz I don’t have on hand. They were more crumbly than expected so I ended up placing piles into middle of Saran wrap and gathering it around and squeezing hard to form tight balls. Worked well.
Just made these, they came out great! I used chunky almond butter, goji berries, grade B maple syrup and did add the chia seeds. Left out the chocolate. Thanks for an amazing recipe I will make for yrs to come!
I made these with oatmeal, peanut butter, flaxseed, dried cranberries, agave, chia seeds, and the vanilla. They turned out great with no coconut shavings I only had added about 1 tbsp extra of the oatmeal to substitute. My batch yielded 17 balls, with the following nutrition facts per ball:
-Calories: 141
-Fat: 6.7g
-Sodium: 26.8mg
-Carbs: 15.6g
-Protein: 3.5g
-Calcium: 1.9%
-Iron: 4.9%
At 141 calories per ball, these are definitely a one-per-day luxury snack. I do love that these mini energy bites are boosting with 3.5g protein though…they are good alternative to store bought granola bars, and they hold you over longer.
Love this recipe! I often make it just as above but ran out of oatmeal. So instead I substituted a packet of Maple & Brown sugar instant oatmeal from Trader Joes and omitted the honey….so delectable! Probably not as healthy but sure was tasty!
They turned out great!
I added dried cranberries, chopped almonds, and some brown sugar. I was out of honey, and only used half the amount of maple syrup (it was cheap maple syrup). Luckily, this didn’t seem to keep them from staying together. ;)
Thank you for the recipe. I used mine with quackery instant oats, and I made my own hazelnut butter instead of the peanut butter, and I toasted unsweetened coconut, used dark chocolate chips and a few butterscotch chips, and omitted the chia, and used everything as usual
I made these this morning and used maple syrup instead of honey. They are not sticking together at all! I don’t know what to add… water? oil? more PB? Please help me out. This recipe is way too dry and I made it exactly like it is, using the same portions you have stated. Thanks
I would add more peanut butter. Different peanut butters often have different levels of thickness/stickyness. And be sure to refrigerate the mixture before rolling — that will help it to stick together.
I made these with Grades 1, 2, and 3 students as part of our School Snack Club. They were no leftovers for them to take home!!! We substituted WOW butter instead of peanut butter as we are a nut free school.
My friend and I have made these twice now and we are obsessed!! They are delicious healthy little snacks that easily satisfy a sweet tooth craving!! We highly recommend them!!!
I recommend leaving it in (and this, by the way, from someone who’s not a huge fan of coconut — it’s not overpowering in this recipe at all). But if need be, you can just add in a few extra tablespoons of oats to replace the coconut.
Not sure if this has been suggested but I omitted the chocolate chips and dipped the chilled balls in good dark chocolate. Totally took care of the stickiness issues. I eat a few of these in the car on my drive to work.
I have made these with old fashion oats and they were fantastic. My children who are now teenagers and adults love them. Can I use steel cut oats in them next time?
I added some soft extra virgin coconut oil to mine. It allowed me to cut back on the honey and EVCO has so many excellent health properties. I also added some almond meal in place of some of the oats. They were delicious and the whole family loved them. They’re a great snack to make with the kids.
I cooked down some dates and used that as a “glue” to stick them together and they were fabulous!
I went to the store and bought all of the ingredients. I’m a college student and didn’t have anything but oatmeal and peanut butter. Just tried my first bite and it’s delicious! And so easy to make! I can’t wait to share with my roommates. I used quaker oaks, maple syrup, chocolate chips, coconut flakes, peanut butter, flax seeds, and vanilla extract. Super simple!
Can’t wait to try these! Loving the reviews!
DO THEY HAVE TO STAY REFRIGERATED? Please let me know.. was going to freeze the balls, then take on a camping trip.
Hi Joyous,
Nope, they don’t need to stay refrigerated. That just helps them hold their shape and not fall apart a little easier. :)
~Ali
Do you know how many calories are in these bites?
Nutrition Facts
User Entered Recipe
25 Servings
Amount Per Serving
Calories 124.9
Total Fat 7.4 g
Saturated Fat 3.5 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 1.3 g
Monounsaturated Fat 1.3 g
Cholesterol 0.0 mg
Sodium 41.7 mg
Potassium 38.5 mg
Total Carbohydrate 13.7 g
Dietary Fiber 1.7 g
Sugars 6.8 g
Protein 2.5 g
Using the calculator from spark people Exact ingredients using honey, semi sweet chips, peanut butter creamy.
Instead of 1 cup oatmeal, I used 1/2 cup each of oatmeal and rice krispies, and instead of the 1/2 cup each of flaxseed & chocolate chips, I used 1/3 cup each of chopped walnuts, slivered almonds and sunflower seeds. In place of the 1 tablespoon of chia seeds, I used wheat germ. They freeze well and I take out one every morning to take to work.
My father-in-law hates coconut so I substituted with three honey graham crackers and they ended up being AMAZING!!!! Just and FYI for anyone who is not a fan of coconut. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe, everyone raves about these!
I have made these several times. My girls love them! I usually omit the coconut and substitute Rice Krispie cereal.
Also, I dont wait for them to cool in the fridge. I just use a cookie scoop and call it good.
Just made these one word …… YUM! As a personal trainer and fitness instructor I’m always trying to find tasty substitutes for all the processed artificial things out there that I can recommend to clients, this one is going into my recipe book.
Thanks
Jen
These are thee devil! I devoured 5 alone at my lunch break today. Substitute peanut butter for almond butter and you’ve got yourself a ‘you can’t only eat one’ energy ball..
The best, worst thing for you!
Thank you :)
I made these, my sister and husband love them as well. I made a few switches/additions. I toasted the oatmeal in a dry skillet until golden brown and sprinkle with cinnamon and let cool. I added sunflower seeds/no chia. I did mostly wheat germ and the remainder flax seed. Will be making these often. I am going to try pumpkin, dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds. Yummy. Thanks.
I just made these and they are so good! I am on a healthy eating and calorie counting eating plan. Any idea of the calorie count on these? I am so excited to make these my go to when I have a sweet craving! Please help me on this so I can keep track of what I’m eating. Thanks!
I just made 2 batches of these and loved both of them! For the first batch, I used: oats, maple syrup, honey, ground flaxseed, chopped almonds, peanut butter, vanilla extract, & chocolate chips. For the second batch, I used: oats, honey, toasted coconut flakes, white chocolate chips, dried cranberries, chia seeds, & vanilla extract. I calculated the nutritional value of each to be an average of 120 calories, 5 grams of protein, 15 carbs, and 4 g fat. My favorite were the ones with dried cranberries! Thanks for the recipe!
These turned about pretty amazing. I totally forgot the flaxseed, but they were still great. I’m taking them to work tomorrow to share :)
The photo should be titled “Courtney and me on the slopes” , to be grammatically correct. Love the recipe!!!
I have made these energy bites 4 times in the last week. They are gone with in a day and a half. They are that good.
Hooray! I LOVE these little guys. I have made them a few times with different combinations of nut butters and sometimes replacing chocolate chips with raisins or dried blueberries. They are so good. Even my roommate, who normally turns her nose up at my “weird hippie food”, loved these.
The only thing I wish is that I could make them without traces of nuts. Any suggestions for replacements? I am a teacher and I hesitate to bring these to school because of allergies, but I love them sooo much.
@Hilary, my husband is allergic to nuts and we use a peanut butter substitute such as sunbutter, wow butter, or soy nut butter, then check all the ingredients to make sure none of them say they are processed/made in a shared facility or on shared equipment with peanuts/tree nuts. it takes some footwork, though, to make sure you have safe brands. Hershey’s chips (the last I checked) are safe for nuts, and oats usually are too, but the chia seeds/flaxseed meal/wheat germ can be trickier.
I would suggest that you make your own sunbutter as the stuff I found at the store (Winco) showed that it might have traces of nuts. (sunflower seeds+ olive oil in a food processor=sunbutter). I read that using raw sunflowers is better because the roasted ones are already cooked and that prevents the creaminess.
However, I prefer the taste of roasted!
Does anyone have the nutrition facts on these energy bites?
I love this recipe!!!! These are a huge hit in our house, and I love that they’re so flexible.
I have been eating these for months and absolutely LOVE them! Quick question… do you think I could use steel cut oats instead of rolled oats? Steel cut oats are far heavier and denser, so I’m not sure how it would balance. Thanks!
Me, my husband, and our kids LOVE these! I made the first batch last week and we’ve just been making and eating batch after batch since then. We are having fun playing around with what to put in them. Thanks for sharing!
My family and I stumbled upon this recipe by chance. We have since made and shared it with all our family and friemds! We love it!!
Looking forward to trying this! Thanks to all for putting this out there.
How many calories per ball?
These are my new favorite. My family loves them. I think I might try more honey so they are less crumbly. Thanks for the recipe!
From my calculations if you make the recipe as shown (I used 62% dark chocolate and shredded it) and if you divide them into 25 balls they’re about 87 calories a piece.
Calories per ball = 93 (based on a batch of 24)*
Carbs = 10g; Fat = 5g; Protein = 2g; Sodium = 16mg; Sugar = 6g; Fiber = 2g.
*I made this recipe as indicated except I used oat bran instead of wheat germ. I also used honey, chia seeds and milk chocolate chips. Depending on your substitutions, you could probably reduce the fat & sugar if you wanted to.
These are very good! I did exact recipe but did leave out the optional chia seeds just cuz I don’t have on hand. They were more crumbly than expected so I ended up placing piles into middle of Saran wrap and gathering it around and squeezing hard to form tight balls. Worked well.
These lil balls are so good and very easy to make thanks for the recipe
Just made these, they came out great! I used chunky almond butter, goji berries, grade B maple syrup and did add the chia seeds. Left out the chocolate. Thanks for an amazing recipe I will make for yrs to come!
I made these with oatmeal, peanut butter, flaxseed, dried cranberries, agave, chia seeds, and the vanilla. They turned out great with no coconut shavings I only had added about 1 tbsp extra of the oatmeal to substitute. My batch yielded 17 balls, with the following nutrition facts per ball:
-Calories: 141
-Fat: 6.7g
-Sodium: 26.8mg
-Carbs: 15.6g
-Protein: 3.5g
-Calcium: 1.9%
-Iron: 4.9%
At 141 calories per ball, these are definitely a one-per-day luxury snack. I do love that these mini energy bites are boosting with 3.5g protein though…they are good alternative to store bought granola bars, and they hold you over longer.
Love this recipe! I often make it just as above but ran out of oatmeal. So instead I substituted a packet of Maple & Brown sugar instant oatmeal from Trader Joes and omitted the honey….so delectable! Probably not as healthy but sure was tasty!
Great Idea! Made it and loveeddd it. Added mashed banana to them as well. Look and taste perfect.
They turned out great!
I added dried cranberries, chopped almonds, and some brown sugar. I was out of honey, and only used half the amount of maple syrup (it was cheap maple syrup). Luckily, this didn’t seem to keep them from staying together. ;)
Awesome recipe. One improvement I made was to roll the balls in a flax meal and chia seed mix. They weren’t sticky then.
Thank you for the recipe. I used mine with quackery instant oats, and I made my own hazelnut butter instead of the peanut butter, and I toasted unsweetened coconut, used dark chocolate chips and a few butterscotch chips, and omitted the chia, and used everything as usual
Yum, I’ll be giving these a try!
I made these this morning and used maple syrup instead of honey. They are not sticking together at all! I don’t know what to add… water? oil? more PB? Please help me out. This recipe is way too dry and I made it exactly like it is, using the same portions you have stated. Thanks
I would add more peanut butter. Different peanut butters often have different levels of thickness/stickyness. And be sure to refrigerate the mixture before rolling — that will help it to stick together.
I made these with Grades 1, 2, and 3 students as part of our School Snack Club. They were no leftovers for them to take home!!! We substituted WOW butter instead of peanut butter as we are a nut free school.
My friend and I have made these twice now and we are obsessed!! They are delicious healthy little snacks that easily satisfy a sweet tooth craving!! We highly recommend them!!!
If I wanted them slightly firmer, could they be baked a few minutes? Has anyone tried this?
Hi Kelly,
I have not tried baking them, and would probably not recommend it. I just pop mine in the fridge for a bit to make them firmer. Good luck!
~Ali
You didn’t happen to figure out the nutritional value for these did you?
Nevermind, I saw the calorie comments below ;)
Just made them and my 4 year old loves them. These are great. Thanks.
Just out of curiosity, do you have to use coconut or can that be left out? Everything else sounds yummy!
I recommend leaving it in (and this, by the way, from someone who’s not a huge fan of coconut — it’s not overpowering in this recipe at all). But if need be, you can just add in a few extra tablespoons of oats to replace the coconut.
If you add dried cherries? They taste like Tootsie Rolls. Very delish!
Do you know how many calories are in each energy ball?
Not sure if this has been suggested but I omitted the chocolate chips and dipped the chilled balls in good dark chocolate. Totally took care of the stickiness issues. I eat a few of these in the car on my drive to work.
Great idea, Kim!
Hi,
I made these but I used reconstituted PB2. Same great taste but cuts the calories down.
How did you use the PB2? I would like to the it this way!
I have made these with old fashion oats and they were fantastic. My children who are now teenagers and adults love them. Can I use steel cut oats in them next time?
Sure, steel cut oats will work great. Glad you enjoy them!