Peanut Ladoo/Sweet Balls

Here's another addition to my Toddler Treat Series and Toddler Lunchbox Series! Becoming a mother has made me delve even deeper into the wealth of information that's out there in books, the Internet, magazines, people, television, etc...Peanuts/groundnuts are something I've had all my life and known are a high source of protein, but it's only now that I went deeper into it and discovered the following facts-they are higher in antioxidants than fruits like strawberries and vegetables like carrots and beetroots, have a very high content of niacin which is good for brain health, are high in fiber and vitamin E, and have more than 30 nutrients in them! And did you know that roasting them increases the antioxidant level by more than 20%?! Of course, there's no use rattling off all this to a 2+ year old toddler! My son doesn't like peanuts and so I had to find ways to include them in his diet. I first tried the obvious choice-peanut butter, which he rejected outright....I was looking around for other ways when I found this recipe on a popular TV show (Lakshmi Nair's Magic Oven). This seems to have hit all the sweet spots with my son, who gobbles them up with glee, much to his mom's relief and delight! So now that I've got one more nutritious and delicious snack/sweet to include in his school snackbox, I'm sharing this here hoping it might be of help to some other moms out there. Even if you don't have any toddlers to feed, I can assure you that this will be a winner with adults too! So here goes....

To make 10 lemon-sized balls:

1. 200 g peanuts/groundnuts (roasted and skin removed)
2. 1/2 cup sugar, powdered
3. 1/2 cup milk powder (since this was for my son, I used Nido/Neslac, which he usually drinks, to up the nutrition ante!)
4. 4 to 5 tablespoons condensed milk (I used Milkmaid)

• In your blender jar, put in the whole peanuts, powdered sugar, and milk powder.
• Give it a good whizz until it all comes together into a nice fine powder. It will be a little moist because of the slight oil content in the peanuts.
• Transfer this to a bowl.
• Add the condensed milk and combine everything using a spoon or by hand.
• Now shape into lemon-sized balls.
• It's now ready to eat! Refrigerate if you're storing it for more than a day.

TIPS: Please decrease or increase the sweetness of this according to your taste. I have given the measurements and ingredients as in the original recipe. Please bear in mind that along with the sugar, the condensed milk and milk powder are sweet in themselves, so it would be a good idea to reduce the amounts of each just a little.

I'm linking this to the following blog events:

Sweet Tooth Friday hosted by Allison

Anyone Can Cook Series #30 hosted by Ayeesha