Recipe: The Most Satisfying, 15 Minute, No Bake Dessert (Now With Nutritional Information!)

When John and I first started dating and we’d begun sharing stories of our past I told him a lot about my recent past which was the first few years after I’d graduated college. I lived with my friend Rachel at the time and we indulged in a lot of movie watching, lazing around, crafting, nature walks, etc. In other words, many hippie activities.

Among our favorite things to do were coming up with some excellent midnight snacks after rolling home from the bar (ahh, to be 23 again), usually involving peanut butter. On one occasion when I was sharing such a story with John he said “oh what, like gooballs?” I burst out laughing. “Goo-WHAT?” “Gooballs! You know, like the hippie peanut butter, granola, and weed snack they bring to festivals to sustain themselves on!” I don’t know what I thought was funnier: the name gooball, John’s supposed knowledge of hippie culture, or the existence of such a food item. (For the record, I looked it up and a gooball is a totally legit thing. Thanks Urban Dictionary!) So ever since then we’ve constantly joked about gooballs.

Cut to the other night. We were craving something peanut buttery, I mentioned making oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, but in the end was too lazy to actually bake anything. Well I went into the kitchen and whipped up the following recipe. When I emerged, holding one out for John to try, he took a bite, eyes widening, and said “Kim, you made gooballs!” We died laughing and promptly ate all of them because they were so dang delicious. Those hippies are on to something I guess (minus the drugs). Enjoy these and have a laugh at my expense.

Domestocrat’s Gooballs
(makes 10 servings, see below for nutritional information)
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup peanuts
1/2 cup chocolate chips
2 tbsp. honey
2 tbsp. peanut butter

Start by combining the oats, peanuts, and chocolate chips in a bowl.

Melt the peanut butter in the microwave for 30 seconds. Pour that and the honey over the oats/nuts/chips.

Stir thoroughly until you have a homogenous mixture.

Prep your gooball rolling station: line a plate with plastic wrap, place your bowl right next to the plate, and wet your hands with cool water. Breaking off little pieces at a time, roll the mixture between your hands into a tight ball and place on the plate. If the mixture starts to stick to your hands, just wet them again with more water. This batch should make ten 1-inch gooballs.

Up until this point the mixing, combining, and rolling should have taken only 5 minutes or so. To complete the gooballs, put the plate in the fridge for 10 minutes to cool/chill.

There you have it! The best 15 minute, no bake dessert ever. Also, it’s totally satisfying because it includes all the yummy flavors we are constantly craving like hippies: peanut butter, chocolate, and oats. The texture is awesome too; it’s crunchy, sticky, and sweet.

Now for the last and most exciting part (in my opinion) – the nutritional information!

I have had a lot of requests to add nutritional information to my recipes. I am so happy to finally be able to do it! Since I bought my iPhone I have been app crazy. One app that I love is Lose It. It keeps track of your daily calorie intake and exercise (it’s the #1 thing helping me stick to my healthy resolutions so far this year). Included in the app is the capability to create your own recipes. That means I can track every ingredient that goes into one of my recipes and it will tell me all of the nutritional information per serving. Check it out: