I’ve been trying to find ways to get in the Halloween spirit. But *spoiler* I don’t like scary movies, and no one wants to invite me to their Halloween party after I turned up as a yellow minion. We’re currently living at my mums to save for a house, so I don’t really feel like kitting out the place with millions of pumpkins.
My solution? If you can’t celebrate Halloween (because, sigh, adults don’t go trick or treating) and no one’s hosting an amazing shindig, you can at least fill your belly with goodness, right? So, this year, swap all those chocolates and sweets for a Halloween style snack that’s actually going to fill you up and offer some nutritional value.
Yes, people, grown-ups can enjoy special Halloween treats for adults.
I’ve also had my husband complaining that he doesn’t eat enough protein lately, and he keeps buying snacks at work. So I’m going to kill two birds with one stone. 1. Celebrate Halloween and 2. Increase my/our protein intake.
Now, let me stress, I’m no baker. In fact, I’ve got a history of being pretty awful. Why? Because when I cook I’m not precise.
I like to be creative and experiment, chucking in a bit of something here and a dash of whatever takes my fancy.
Sometimes this strategy works, other times it doesn’t. But today whatever combo I threw into my mixing bowl produced a positively glorious result. Perhaps there’s room for me on an amateur bake off after all.
These may not be the prettiest sweet treats you’ve ever seen in your life – mainly because I couldn’t get the chocolate drizzle on point. But boy do they taste good. Both the protein balls with ginger and dates and pumpkin and cinnamon flapjacks feel like a mouthful of Halloween/autumnal goodness.
The protein balls were taken from a recipe by Amy Cousins which I’ve adapted using my usual experimental flair. The protein flapjacks are all my own making. I actually make these quite regularly for the hubby to take to work. They’re also great for breakfast with a helping of Greek yoghurt. We had a CrossFit competition a few weeks back and these babies got us through six hours of WOD’s (workouts).
These flapjacks are different to my usual ones, because they’re made with pumpkin. Pumpkin??!!! Yes, I know it sounds strange, but trust me, it really works well for this recipe.
When Halloween is done, don’t throw your pumpkins away, use them to make soup, cakes and flapjacks.
I’ve been wanting to try protein balls for a while, having tried the Deliciously Ella cashew and ginger ones. They’re nice, but I find them a little hard going, and perhaps a bit to zingy for my liking. Plus they’re uber expensive. Then when I saw Amy’s recipe and tried her creations myself at a promo event – I knew I had to make some.
And guess what, protein energy balls are soooo easy to make. No cooking. A tiny amount of prep.
Sure, I made quite a mess, but I had great fun making these scrummy snacks. On a side note, I find cooking is a great distraction when you need to take your mind off things.
I like being creative and focussing my mind on the task at hand rather than the billion other things in my brain. There was something quite therapeutic about making these protein balls because you have to roll them individually with your hands. It reminded me of when I was little and I used to make little balls of sand, and throw them into the sea (I was a strange child).
As I mentioned earlier I don’t really measure exact amounts. I just add ingredients and have a quick taste to see if I need more. So use the ingredients below and make them your own – depending on what ingredients you like the most.
Here are two healthy but scrumptious Halloween baking treat/dessert/breakfast/snack recipes.
Ginger and date protein energy ball recipe
Ingredients:
- Finely chopped fresh ginger
- A dash of ground ginger
- Free Soul ginger biscuit protein powder
- A sprinkle of nutmeg
- One teaspoon cinnamon
- Half a pack of dates (four or five large ones)
- Half a pack of walnuts
- Half a bag of oats
- The juice of ¼ of a lemon (not much)
- Half a bag of pumpkin seeds
- Cocoa powder (optional)
- Water to get the right consistency
Method:
- You basically need to mix all the above ingredients together. However, you’ll need to blend up the oats, walnuts, dates, ginger and pumpkin seeds first. If you’ve got a decent blender it should go into a sort of powdery texture.
- Then add all the other ingredients and mix together until you’ve got a slightly sticky consistency. Only add a little bit of water at a time, you don’t want your protein balls to be too gooey.
- Next, roll the mixture into balls. You can opt for smaller bite size ones or bigger ones that will fill you up more. I went for bigger ones obviously. The hardest part of this recipe is getting the balls all the same size, which I failed to do.
- To make the chocolate drizzle sauce melt some butter and then add golden syrup and raw cocoa powder. Stir until it turns into a smooth sauce. Then drizzle on top in whatever pattern your heart desires.
- For a healthier alternative, simply melt some 85% dark chocolate and drizzle on top.
- For the chocoholics out there, you can also sprinkle a dusting of cocoa powder on top to make yummy ginger and chocolate high protein balls.
Pumpkin, ginger and cinnamon energy protein flapjack recipe
Ingredients:
- A whole load of oats
- Coconut oil or butter whichever you prefer
- A splash of coconut milk to help get the right consistency (you can use water)
- Protein powder (I used Free Soul Ginger biscuit flavour which works so well with this recipe)
- Half a small pumpkin
- Honey
- A squeeze of lemon (amount varies depending on how zingy you want them)
- A healthy sprinkle of cinnamon (again, add to taste depending on how much you like cinnamon)
- A little sprinkle of nutmeg
- A teaspoon of ground ginger
Method:
- These are also really easy to make, the only difference is you cook them in the oven once you’ve made the mixture.
- Before making the mixture you’ll need to chop up and boil half a pumpkin. Let it cool a little.
- For the mixture, start by adding the protein powder, oats and pumpkin.
- If you’re using butter add it now as it will melt easier if the pumpkin is still a little warm.
- Mix together and then add all the other ingredients. But leave the coconut milk and lemon until the end.
- Add the lemon juice and then keep adding a little bit of coconut milk until the mixture starts sticking together and is a little moist.
- It takes a few attempts at making these to figure out the best consistency. Some people prefer their flapjacks moist, and other like them harder and crunchy, so it depends what you want.
- Then spread the mixture evenly over greaseproof paper in a suitable dish.
- Pop in the oven for ten minutes at around 160 degrees.
- Take out the oven when the flapjacks are harder on top but still gooey on the inside.
- Cut up into slices and leave to cool.
- For the sauce, follow the same instructions as the sauce above for the protein balls. And if you like, sprinkle with pumpkin seeds for some added goodness.
ENJOY! The Content Wolf XOXO
