Loaded with banana, chocolate, and nuts, these chunky monkey snack bites are a nutritious and delicious way to satisfy that sweet tooth, no matter what time it might hit.
Can you believe it’s been almost a month since I posted a recipe? These applesauce oatmeal muffins were the last things to come out of my kitchen… and that was way back at the end of February. Oops.
But let me explain! First, time is going by way too quickly — weren’t we just ringing in the new year? And now it’s almost time to celebrate Easter? Whaaaaaat?!? One good thing about this warp speediness is the fact that winter is moving along at the same speedy pace. Maybe it’s just me, but the cold didn’t feel like it was dragging quite so badly this year.
Second, I was without a kitchen! Maybe not for the entire 3 weeks, but between prepping for my trip, travelling, and feeling like a zombie recovering from jet lag, I didn’t really find a good moment to fit in any recipe making. But I’m back, baby! I want to get back into posting at least two recipes per week, so let’s kick things off with these little guys right here…
Chunky Monkey Snack Bites. Whether you like to call them balls, bites, or little pieces of heaven, one fact remains — these kind of snacks are all sorts of magical. Not only are they a breeze to whip up, but they’re a great way to satisfy that sweet tooth, even when it hits you at 9 AM… not that I speak from experience or anything 😯
Oh, and in the interest of full disclosure I should probably admit that, while I slapped the chunky monkey label on these guys, I honestly have no idea how chunky monkey they really are. My allergies prevent me from eating the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavour (which is apparently where the chunky monkey name comes from — and yes, I Googled it), so I’m kind of grasping at straws here. All I know is that these bites are chunky thanks to the nuts and chocolate, and monkey thanks to the banana.
They’re gluten-free, refined sugar-free, vegan, and probably a few other healthy labels that I can’t think of right now. You don’t need an oven to make them, but you do need a stove… and a freezer. A stove to heat up the nut butter, banana, and honey, and a freezer to help the bites set. Heating up the ingredients also makes the oats release some of their goopiness (adding to the cookie dough texture), and freezing the bites gives them the most addicting texture.
Oh, and I realize that there’s nothing green or Irish about this recipe, but Happy St. Patrick’s Day anyway!
I’d love to know if you make this (or any!) recipe! Tag @runwithspoons on Instagram and Twitter, and be sure to subscribe to our mailing list to receive more healthy and delicious recipes straight to your inbox!
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Chunky Monkey Snack Bites
- Total Time: 15 mins
- Yield: 12 bites 1x
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup almond butter (or other nut/seed butter)
- 1 ripe banana, mashed
- 2 Tbsp. honey
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 cup quick oats
- 1/2 cup chopped nuts (almonds, peanuts, walnuts, etc.)
- 1/4 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a small pan over medium-high heat, add the almond butter, mashed banana, honey, and vanilla extract, stirring until smooth and fully combined. Bring the mixture to a boil before removing from heat. Stir in oats and chopped nuts, mixing well. Set aside and allow the mixture to cool before adding the chocolate chips.
- Drop dough onto your prepared baking sheet by the heaping tablespoonful, studding the tops with more chocolate chips and/or nuts if desired.
- Place baking pan into freezer and allow to cool for ~30 minutes until bites have set. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week, or in the freezer for up to a month.
- Prep Time: 15 mins
Those sounds delicious! I’m always looking for more easy treats to add to my line up. I just made some date filled bites last night. These chucky monkeys will have to be my next!
Awesome recipe! Gonna have to make these this week!
Happy Sharefest!
the debate is still going as to whether they are bites or balls! I still can’t decide….Sorry I’m so behind! I’m behind on life and grasping to catch up. ebgbgegbrg SLEEP.
These look great, and I very much like your description for the name. Way better than B&Js.
PS I’m a little biased since I adore anything that involves #publicbananas and any form of monkey…#vanillagorilla. 🙂
😆 Have I told you lately that you’re all sorts of wonderful? <3
DUDE. Totally making these! What a perfect little pre-workout bite!
And Chunky Monkey ice cream rocked my world back in high school. 😉
My sweet tooth hits at the most inopportune times! I’m gonna go ahead and say that these are officially my excuse for eating chocolate in the wee hours of the night. YUMMMEEEEEE!
These look scrumptious and well worth the wait! Chunky monkey is one of my favorites so I know I would scarf these down like there’s no tomorrow.
And yes, time is flying by so fast!
These look amazing, and I love anything Chunky Monkey flavored! I make a lot of chunky monkey protein smoothies lately!
Time is going way too fast!!! These look delicious! Going to make them this weekend!!
Wow those really good. But seriously when does chocolate chips not look good? Great recipe as usual.
Holy yum these look absolutely delicious!! I love the food photography. I need to put aside a weekend to bake and photograph soon as I’ve not posted a recipe in too long.
I find the weekends are my favourite time to get that done as well… Things usually don’t work out too well if I try to cram it in during the week 😆
I love the name of these – they look delicious too!
Must make and I don’t even need a trip to the grocery store before I do 🙂
Hey Amanda,
It’s really nice experience to visit here for chunky monkey snack bites 😉 Amanda, you look it & I’m also a lover of Amanda, ! Yes I very much, chunky monkey snack bites is my favorite one dish !
OH yum!! These look absolutely divine. I’m going to have to pull out my pots and pans tomorrow morning, for sure.
I used to make almost this exact recipe for my son when he was younger. Not sure why I haven’t made it in awhile but I should! He loved them!
I love chunky monkey! these are great!
I bet these would be AWESOME, FANTASTIC, OUT OF THIS WORLD crumbled in/on your oatmeal cookie dough smoothie. You agree??
YES. simple + no fuss + no bake #winning
can’t wait to whip us these gems this weekend!
thanks for the recipe girly, when’s your cookbook coming out?! 🙂
Right around the same time that your nutritional advice and hormone healing one comes out <3
These look awesome! yum!
PPPFffttt, who needs a green recipe today. These look WAY better than anything green anyway! I wanna get my monkey on with these chunkies!! I’m not even sure what that means…but it sounded right.
I am so excited to make and try these! I saw the picture on IG and couldn’t wait for the recipe!
Welcome back! This looks so yummy! I’ll be saving this recipe for later, but hopefully will try them soon!
Ooh yum! AB, banana, and chocolate is seriously the ultimate flavour combination!
And I feel you on the unfortunate lack of Ben and Jerry’s in our lives. I actually used to be able to eat their ice cream years ago when they made all their flavours in separate factories… but then they changed and started making them all in one factory. I will never forgive them for that! 😛
So hard to find a peanut-free ice cream 🙁 Have you tried Chapman’s? They actually have some really fun flavours, and they have cones and sandwiches that are peanut free as well.
You seriously just can’t go wrong with this combination of ingredients. Absolute perfection.
Girl, you’ve been too busy living life and having fun to worry about posting recipes! As long as you promise to post yummy ones like this, who cares how frequently they appear?! 😉 These sound awesome! Can’t wait to give ’em a try!
Oh em…haaaalelujah! Seriously, you could live off of oats, almond butter, and bananas. And I’m very happy that you could do that, because that means more recipes with all those things! I love little bites, and I love all these ingredients (chocolate is questionable though…I know. I should be shunned). Thanks for sharing another awesome recipe, Amanda! 🙂
Why didn’t you experiment with this when I was kitchenless….oh well, these look…chunky monkey amazing? I’ve tried the BnJ’s ice cream flavour and wasn’t the biggest fan but the combination in itself-
And lol. Always the Amanda ingredients. Love it. oats, ab, honey, banana, chocolate. Doesn’t take much to make you happy.
I’m a simple girl 😀 But yeah… A little bit of branching out probably wouldn’t hurt — I’ll change the honey to agave 😉
I feel like you need to have a post titled ‘Oops I did it again’ for all your delicious treats!
Can you ever go wrong with almond butter + oats + chocolate chips? Add in banana + honey? Oh yum!
i think i shall call these little pieces of heaven that make me do a funky dance. will that work? YUM
No wayyyy it’s been almost a month?!!! Man, that’s one of the reasons I love being part of blogland because it reminds me to take everything in RIGHT NOW. It seems like time flies faster nowadays, and reading blogs def. accents that, haha! But seriously. Is there something weird going on in our galaxy that makes life seem to go faster? 😛
And these are so adorable, Amanda! I love how you use AB in so many of your recipes. It makes everything moist, hearty, and gooey. <333 Mmmmm
BALLS!! 🙂
Gosh….warming up Almond Butter with Honey and Banana sounds like heaven. I think I need all my willpower to keep on ‘baking’ when this mixture comes out of the pan!
These look so adorable and I love the combo for sure – I am still convinced that you should open up an Amanda-coffee-place with your perfect Cappucinos and all those delicious treats you create. I would be your most regular guest!
That would seriously be a dream come true… now if only I knew how to make it happen!
These look and sound crazy good!