dark chocolate seed + nut protein bites: recipe

I have to say that I am unbelievably happy with these! Sweet things are my weakness, completely, so whilst I can substitute most cravings whilst on my diet, sometimes I just really want chocolate, and nothing else can really take that place. The other week I caved and bought some chocolate and wolfed it down. Not wanting a repeat of that, I decided to try and whip up some dark-chocolate seedy-protein bites.

I just grabbed a bunch of nuts, seeds, etc, that I really liked, mixed them all up in a bowl, and came out with this. You can really adjust this to include whatever you like, because to be honest, what wouldn't taste good covered in dark chocolate? A lot of the recipes I was looking at for inspiration contained protein powders, but I'm not about that, I just wanted something crunchy and filling, so picked ingredients that would be good for that.

(All ingredients amounts are approximate, because I just added until I found a decent mixture. I weighed the pumpkin seeds and added similar amounts of everything else.)

YOU'LL NEED:
- 40g pumpkin seeds
- 30g raw cashew nuts (not roasted or salted)
- 40g sunflower seed hearts
- 20g pine-nut kernels
- A handful of sultanas
- A handful of rolled oats
- 1 tbsp of peanut butter
- 100g dark chocolate (the more cocoa solids the better)

STEPS:
1. In a microwavable bowl (or on the stove over a bowl of water, if you're feeling fancy) melt the chocolate.
2. Add in all the seeds, pine-nuts, sultanas and peanut butter and mix together. Break the cashew nuts into pieces as you put them into the mixture, so you don't get giant lumps.
3. Add the oats as necessary, these are mostly to just help the mixture to stick together, so you don't want many.
4. Allow the chocolate to cool slightly, before making it into balls and placing on baking parchment. Put in the fridge to cool completely.
5. Keep them in the fridge, as they're best cold.

So as you can see, they're not hard to make, in the slightest. They're super tasty and they're really good for when you fancy something chewy and chocolatey - and each ball is only about 100 calories the way I make them. It gives you that sweet kick you want sometimes. They go great with iced coffee (I can attest to that) mid-morning, when you're flagging after an early start, or as a little treat in the evening. You can change the