No-Bake PeaNutella Bites

There is a recipe for No-Bake-Energy-Bites from gimme some oven that I've seen a ton of people pinning on Pinterest that I was eager to try. I wanted to make some for my sister so she would have something easy to pop in her mouth as she trains for an upcoming race. The only thing is when I went to make said recipe I did not have all the ingredients necessary. So I improvised and came up with Peanut Butter Nutella Bites aka PeaNutella Bites. If you love chocolate and peanut butter you will love these! They have just the right amount of sweetness and crunch. Beware. They're slightly addicting.

No-Bake PeaNutella Bites

    2 cups (dry) oatmeal (I used old-fashioned oats)
    1 cup granola cereal (I had some leftover from having tried this recipe. It adds crunch to these bites)
    1 1/2 cup toasted coconut flakes - Broil for 2 minutes, stir, return to broiler for 1-1/2 minutes longer
    1/2 cup peanut butter, (I used natural)
    1/2 cup Nutella (I heaped my 1/2 cups of peanut butter and Nutella)
    1/3 cup sesame seeds
    1/3 cup honey
    1 tsp. vanilla

Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add peanut butter, Nutella, honey, and vanilla. Mix well. This is especially a cinch when you use your KitchenAid. When all ingredients are mixed thoroughly, place the bowl in the refrigerator and allow to chill for approximately 30 minutes. Try not to snitch too many spoonfuls when you can't help but "check on it" multiple times...
Once chilled, roll the mixture into balls. I used my small scoop to make sure my bites were uniform in size. This recipe makes 40-45 small bites. These can be stored in an airtight container for up to a week in the refrigerator. They also freeze well!

 A couple notes: 

If you don't have granola, no worries! You can replace it with a cup of dry ingredients such as, chopped nuts, puffed rice cereal, additional toasted coconut, dried fruit, flaxseed, etc. And if you don't care for coconut (though the taste is not at all overwhelming and the texture disappears in the chewy oatmeal-peanutella deliciousness) you may swap it out for a different dry ingredient.

Not a fan of hazelnuts or nutella? (gasp!) Just omit the nutella and increase the peanut butter to a full cup. You can always add chocolate chips or m&ms if you still want the peanut butter/chocolate combination.

Whether you make this recipe as written or change it up to make it your own, I hope you'll enjoy it!