Power Balls are Born - Coconut Oatmeal Banana Bread Balls

Since making blogs seems like the popular thing to do these days and since I've recently come up with a new idea, I decided to get in on this blogging action. Before disclosing what sparked this blog, here's the build up:

Being a 3rd and final semester grad student and feeling somewhat anxious and nostalgic for days of undergraduate youth, I was looking for a way to stay connected to the track and field team I was part of and trained with last year (as a grad student). My main constraint was to not appear as that weird grad student without a title such as volunteer assistant coach to help validate my occasional presence at practice and so who the freshmen don't know at all and constantly wonder what she's doing around the locker room or at practice or even who the upper classmen secretly question why she doesn't just go do graduate student things and hang out with graduate student friends (note: I don't have grad student friends - except for my lovely roommate). So with that in mind, I came up with the idea of combining the track team with another hobby of mine - cooking! I could be the team provider of power bars! Or better yet power balls! (aka bite size power bars - easier to make and eat!)

And so, after talking to the captains and coaches and several other team members, I got the overall go ahead and created my first batch of power balls - Coconut Oatmeal Banana Bread Balls. I came up with the recipe after browsing various power bar recipe websites and whatever potentially nutritious things I had in my pantry. Here's the turnout:

Laura's Coconut Oatmeal Banana Bread Balls

Mix Dry Ingredients:

3.25 c Oats

0.25 c Flaxseed Meal

2 Scoops Vanilla Protein Powder

1.5 c Nonfat Dry Milk

1 tbsp Cinnamon

Mix Wet Ingredients:

2 Mashed Bananas

0.25 c Honey

0.25 c Syrup

0.25 c Light Corn Syrup

2 Egg Whites

0.25 c Orange Juice

0.5 tsp Vanilla Extract

0.5 tsp Almond Extract

Combine wet and dry ingredients.

Add:

0.5 c Dried Blueberries

0.5 c Dried Craisins

1.33 c Dried Shredded Coconut

Scoop into balls on a greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 325°F for around 15 minutes or until they look done/golden brown on the bottom.

Makes approximately 64 balls.

Nutritional Facts Per Ball:

58.92 Calories

10.35 Calories from Fat

2.33g Protein

1.23g Total Fat

0.70g Saturated Fat

10.42g Carbohydrates

2.66mg Cholesterol

They seemed to have had a successful/positive reaction, although one less-distance-runner-oriented coach scoffed at the protein amount, which I thought was pretty good, while a distance-runner-oriented coach claimed he could taste the protein powder. But that doesn't really matter anyways since the team seemed to like them and so I'll be making my next batch right away. There've been requests for a chocolate and peanut butter concoction, so look out for that.

Happy Running and Power Ball Eating!

~Laura