Almond Butter Lactation Balls
Almond Butter Lactation Balls not only contain lactation encouraging ingredients like oats, flaxseed, and brewers yeast, but they are delicious!
It always blows my mind how ravenous my appetite is when I'm breastfeeding, but it does make sense. I mean, a nursing mom is providing every single ounce of nourishment to her baby with her own body with her milk production...that's a lot of work! I'm constantly looking for a snack and a boost for my breast milk supply. My go-to this time around with Emma has been Almond Butter Lactation Balls.
While I've always made my lactation balls with peanut butter, I have been loving the flavor of almond butter lately. Really, any nut butter would work and it just depends on what taste you prefer. Plus, with a hint of cinnamon in these lactation bites, they're just irresistible!
Ingredients in Almond Butter Lactation Balls
The three standard ingredients in most lactation-encouraging treats or desserts are old fashioned oats, flaxseed meal, and brewers yeast. These lactation balls start with those three ingredients, along with cinnamon, almond butter, honey, vanilla extract, and chocolate chips. If you don't have/like almond butter, you can use natural peanut butter or cashew butter, too!
While flax seed meal and brewers yeast might be new ingredients to a new moms cupboard, once you buy them (and they're not expensive!), you'll be using them all of the time for lactation goodies. These are great for boosting milk supply and also have a ton of nutrients in them.
How to Make Lactation Balls
To make vegan dairy-free almond butter lactation balls, you can use a bowl with a spatula, or a bowl with an electric mixer.
You'll start by making together the oats, flaxseed meal, brewers yeast, cinnamon, and salt. I use old fashioned oats but rolled oats work, too.
Next, the almond butter and honey are combined in a separate bowl, and microwaved in 15 second intervals until they can be stirred together. This is an important step because almond butter can be pretty tough to stir into other ingredients when it's at room temperature or coming from the refrigerator. Microwaving it and combining it with honey will make it much easier to mix into the oats.
After the almond butter and honey are stirred together, the vanilla is added, and then the wet ingredients are added to the dry ingredients.
The last step is rolling them into balls. I used a cookie scoop which made them approximately 2 tablespoons sized, and then rolled them together with my hands. The rolled balls are placed on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and cooled in the fridge for 20-30 minutes to set up a bit. This helps them not stick together once they are in a tupperware.
These also freeze really well, and I always make an extra batch for the freezer. Just place them in an airtight Tupperware container or Ziplock baggies (I love my reusable ones!) and place in the freezer for up to 2 months.
Like this recipe? Check these out too!
Banana Oat Dark Chocolate Chip Bars
Almond Butter Lactation Balls
Ingredients
- 2 cups old fashioned oats
- ½ cup ground flaxseed
- ¼ cup brewers yeast
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup almond butter
- ½ cup honey
- 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix together the oats, flaxseed, brewers yeast, cinnamon, and salt.
- In a smaller bowl, add the almond butter and honey. Microwave in 15 second intervals until the almond butter has softened and mixes well with the honey.
- Stir in the vanilla to the almond butter/honey mixture.
- Add the almond butter mixture to the dry ingredients and stir with a spatula until well combined. Note: you can also do this with an electric mixer with the paddle attachment.
- Using a 2 tablespoon cookie dough scoop, form into balls and roll together with your hands.
- Place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and refrigerate for 20 minutes. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
- Enjoy!
