Mocha Energy Bites

Put the dates in the bowl of a food processor and process until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add the almond butter, honey, vanilla, and instant coffee until combined. Transfer to a medium-sized bowl. Add the flax seed, oats and chocolate covered coffee beans. Stir until everything is incorporated. You may have to get down and dirty with your hands here.

Form the mixture into balls about 1 to 1½ inches in diameter. Store in the refrigerator for about a week or in the freezer for longer.

Notes:
1. You can use peanut butter or sunflower seed butter instead of almond butter. However, if the nut butter you choose is pretty sweet, you may want to decrease the amount of honey or vanilla used.
2. I pulsed my chocolate covered coffee beans in the food processor a few times to break them down a little bit.
3. If you don’t want to use chocolate covered coffee beans increase the instant coffee granules to 1 teaspoon and use ½ cup dark chocolate chips. These would still be good without the instant coffee or coffee beans as well. I would recommend keeping the chocolate though!
4. Make these gluten-free by using gluten-free oats.