Raw Chocolate Superfood Energy Balls

Raw Chocolate Superfood Energy Balls

Adorable, good-looking, delicious and healthy: What's not to love about Raw Chocolate Superfood Energy Balls?

Back when winter seemed like a fun-fresh idea, I brought these little gems to a New Year's Day gathering. They were a big hit, and I've been meaning to post the recipe ever since.

Ahem.

Daylight savings time started today and according to my calendar, it's almost Spring. Whoopsie!

I hope you'll agree this is a recipe worth waiting for, and better late than never...

Raw Chocolate Superfood Energy Balls

Ingredients
1.5 cups organic raw almonds
1/4 cup hemp protein powder (or pea protein)
3 Tbs raw cacao powder
2 tsp spirulina powder
1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
1 Tbs Chia seeds
18 Medjool dates, pitted
1 tsp vanilla powder or extract
a few tablespoons of cold water

+ your choice of coating: shredded coconut, cacao nibs, hemp seeds, chopped goji berries (Tip: If using gojis, chop them in your clean food processor before you start making the energy balls!)

Directions
Add almonds, hemp protein powder, raw cacao, spirulina, cinnamon and chia seeds to food processor and pulse repeatedly until well combined. Add vanilla and pitted dates and pulse-process again until mixture starts to bind together. Add cold water by the tablespoon and continue processing until mixture pulls together and you have what looks like a firm, soft ball of dough.

Transfer dough into a clean bowl. In separate smaller bowls, pour out about a half cup each of your chosen coating ingredients. (I used shredded coconut and goji berries.)

Using your fingers or a spoon, pull off a tablespoon-sized chunk of dough and form it into a ball. Roll or toss ball in coating of choice until well-covered; then set aside on a plate. Repeat until all the dough is used up.

Chill finished energy balls in an airtight container in the refrigerator for at least one hour or until firm.

This recipe makes about 16 energy balls. They can be frozen or stored in the fridge for several weeks. For best flavor, eat at room temperature.

NOTE: You can also use this recipe to make energy BARS instead of energy BALLS. To make bars, simply press your dough into a Pyrex baking dish until desired thickness is achieved. About a half-inch thick is ideal. (Don't try to make the bars fill the entire Pyrex dish—getting the thickness you like is what matters, so expect there to be some empty space in the dish! Just square it off as best you can.)

Use the back of a spatula to get the top flat. Then, gently press your shredded coconut or coating of choice into the surface, cover entire dish with plastic wrap (or use a clean, dry produce bag) and refrigerate as above. When firm, slice into bars and, if desired, individually wrap each one using saran wrap, waxed paper or parchment.

Pumpkin Spice Chia Pudding (Vegan & Gluten-Free!)

Pumpkin Spice Chia Pudding

Wish you could eat pumpkin pie every day but don't want all that fat and sugar? Try this delicious, healthy pumpkin pudding instead! It's made with organic canned pumpkin puree, naturally sweet dates, plain coconut milk and plenty of fragrant, warming pumpkin pie spice. Chia seeds make it thick without eggs or dairy while adding protein, fiber, calcium, iron and a good dose of anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids. 

Enjoy Pumpkin Spice Chia Pudding for breakfast or dessert. Perfect just as is, or add sliced bananas, currants and pecans -- on top, stirred in or layered for an elegant holiday parfait. Yum!

This recipe makes about four cups of pudding. Double it if you have a crowd to feed, or simply want more on hand for you. Keeps well for several days in the fridge since antioxidant-rich chia seeds act as a preservative. 

Pumpkin Spice Chia Pudding

2 cups liquid unsweetened coconut milk (the kind in a carton, not the thicker canned kind)

1 cup organic canned pumpkin (that's half an average can)

6-8 medjool dates

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch Himalayan pink salt

1/2 cup chia seeds (I used white)

Directions: Put all ingredients except chia seeds in the Vita-Mix and blend on medium to high speed, until creamy. Stir in chia seeds, wait five minutes, stir again, wait another five minutes, stir again, wait another five minutes (!) and then give a final stir and pour pudding into two glass pint mason jars or any serving bowl of choice. Cover and chill in refrigerator until firm, about two hours, for best texture. 

Look how thick it gets!

Lemon Coconut Buttercream-Stuffed Medjool Dates

Medjool Dates stuffed with raw, vegan Lemon Coconut Buttercream.

As I write this post with Summer Solstice just a week away, the pretty violets photographed above have given way to buttercups and roses... Still, it's not too late to share a spring-born recipe.

I invented these Lemon Coconut Buttercream-Stuffed Medjool Dates last month as part of my ongoing quest to deliver delicious, digestible, low-sugar sweets to my mouth and yours. Raw, vegan, gluten-free and out of this world scrumptious, this recipe can be made either SCD/GAPS-friendly with raw honey, or low FODMAPS-friendly with maple syrup to sweeten. (I don't know how it would be with detox-friendly stevia, but if I ever dare try it, I'll make a note in the comments below. And please let me know if you do!)

My Lemon Coconut Buttercream is made with raw coconut butter, a naturally sweet, nutrient dense nut butter produced by grinding whole, mature coconut into a smooth paste. Don't confuse coconut butter with coconut oil. Coconut butter is to coconut oil as peanut butter is to peanut oil—totally different!

My number one favorite brand of coconut butter is Sacred Foods. Their low-temperature, super slow stone grinding method creates the silkiest and best-tasting coconut butter I've ever tried, by far. Sacred Coconut Butter is a gourmet product with a premium price ($21.95 for a 16 oz jar) but I highly recommend it if you can manage. Amazing just on the spoon, and in recipes like this one.

Lemon Coconut Buttercream

1 c coconut butter
1 Tbs coconut oil
3-4 Tbs maple syrup or raw honey
2 Tbs lemon juice
1/2 tsp powdered ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp Himalayan pink salt

Make sure coconut butter and oil are at room temperature to begin. Add all ingredients to a food processer fitted with the S-blade and process until smooth, using the pulse function. Add more lemon juice or sweetener to taste.

In an 8X8 Pyrex dish, press buttercream into a half-inch thick "loaf". (The loaf will not fill the entire area of dish! But pyrex is a good, non-reactive holder.) Chill for about one hour to firm up, for easy handling.

Stuffed Medjool Dates

1 batch of Lemon Coconut Buttercream
12 or more plump, soft Medjool dates

To stuff dates, gently remove and discard pits. Slice off a rectangular portion of buttercream, about the size of the date middle, and nestle it into the center of the pitted date. Press and shape to fit as needed (buttercream will soften in your fingers and become very easy to mold). Proceed until you have as many stuffed dates as you want. This recipe will stuff at least two dozen dates at a time, but unless you're feeding a crowd, it's nice to work in smaller batches, and the buttercream keeps very nicely in the fridge for several days (although it's hard to keep it around that long ;-).

Eat to Evolve! Raw Chocolate Brownies

These scrumptious brownies are raw, vegan and gluten free, 100% flourless and sweetened only with whole, soft, caramelicious medjool dates, a fruit about which I have previously waxed poetic, here.

Mouthwateringly rich and dense, Eat to Evolve! Raw Chocolate Brownies contain few ingredients but offer a deeply complex taste experience. Make them with your choice of walnuts or pecans; both are equally delicious. Either way, I recommend cutting them small, and chewing each bite slowly for full flavor enjoyment.

I made a batch of the walnut version to bring to a picnic yesterday (see above picture), and was lucky to have one, lone brownie left over to take home!

Here they are with pecans inside and on top, an elegant touch.

After receiving many requests to share the recipe, I am pleased to do so here and now. May you enjoy these sweet treats, body and soul.

Eat to Evolve! Raw Chocolate Brownies
Makes one 8" X 8" pan, or about 25 small brownies

3 cups raw walnuts or pecans
20 medjool dates, pitted, at room temperature
2/3 cups raw cacao powder
1/4 teaspoon Himalayan pink salt, or sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons cold water

Set aside 1/4 cup of raw walnuts or pecans for topping, and add remaining nuts to food processor along with salt. Process nuts and salt together until finely ground. Add remaining ingredients and process until a consistent, well-mixed dough comes together in a ball. If necessary, sprinkle in more water to help mixing along, but careful not too much—you want it moist, not gooey.

Transfer brownie dough to an 8x8 Pyrex baking dish and with very clean hands, press it down until evenly distributed. Peer through the sides of the Pyrex to ensure a regular height all around. Then give a final pressing with the back of a stainless steel spatula, to create a smooth surface.

Chop the reserved 1/4 cup nuts, sprinkle over the top of the brownies and gently press them in with the spatula.* Or if you prefer, decorate the top with whole pecans, in which case, you may need a few more than the 1/4 cup reserved—think 20-25 total, laid out in neat rows so there will be one pecan atop of each individual brownie.

Cover the dish with waxed paper, put foil or plastic wrap over that, and chill brownies in the refrigerator until they firm up. Once they are firm and hard, you can slice them. I like to cut them small, in one-inch squares, or so. To do this, make four cuts on each side to yield 25 brownies per pan. Or, if you decorated with pecans, use the whole nuts as your slicing guide.

Keep brownies chilled until ready to eat. They taste better at room temperature, but store best in the fridge.

*If decorating the brownies with chopped nuts on top, you may wish to pulse-chop the reserved 1/4 cup of nuts in the food processor as a very first step, before you start making the brownies proper.

Everybody loves my Raw Chocolate Brownies! Won't you have one?

Hot Dates

When it comes to candy, I have just two words in my vocabulary: “chocolate” and “dates.” I’ve written many times before about dark chocolate, my go-to dessert of choice (beloved in part for the fact that it combines equally well with a starch or a protein meal). And I’ve blogged often about raw cacao, one of my favorite ingredients for making decadent power smoothies and delectable raw desserts. (Click here and here for recipes.)

But as much as I love cacao, I have to admit I’m a fool for fresh dates – often sold as Medjool dates. You know, the big, soft sticky kind that simply ooze sweet lusciousness from every moist fiber in their plump little bodies? Those ones.

So, imagine a place where these exact soft, chewy dates fall from the trees in such abundance that they litter the sidewalks, causing a nuisance for shopkeepers and passersby.

That place exists, and it is Treasure Island. I know this because I’m here for a weekend Reiki intensive that started last night. I’ve never been to this side of Florida before and I’m in love with the deep gulf coast beach. Think acres of clean, silky white sand. Tiny pink seashells the size of your fingerprint. Warm calm waters skimmed at sunrise by glider-winged pelicans, scanning for breakfast. Graceful dolphins swimming parallel to the shoreline, curved backs slicing through the sea like glossy dark serpents. And that was just this morning.

But I digress. I was talking about dates.

Besides being delicious dates are a rich source of nutrition. Dates are very high in minerals. A quarter cup of these succulent jewels supplies eight percent of your daily potassium needs and six percent of manganese requirements, along with zinc and copper, iron, selenium, calcium and magnesium.

Dates are also an excellent source of fiber. They are very low in moisture compared to most other fruits, but although dates seem like a dried fruit, they actually are not! I now know this firsthand, having found and tasted several freshly fallen, “dried” dates this morning on my stroll through town.

You could say that as a tropical fruit, dates are naturally dehydrated by the sun. Being native to hot and desert-like environments has influenced the evolution of dates and caused them to contain high levels of antioxidant polyphenols. In dates, olives and other plant foods, polyphenols protect fruits and seeds from turning bad before they ripen to maturity. Plant polyphenols also act as antioxidants in humans. Date polyphenols have been shown to inhibit the oxidation of LDL cholesterol, making them a good choice for heart and blood vessel health. [Hughes JS, Ganthavorn C. Role of Antioxidants in Asian Vegetables and California Dates. Acta Hort. (ISHS) 837:59-64]

Better yet, polyphenols aren't just good for your ticker. In fact, these free radical-quenching compounds help to fight inflammation and slow the aging process throughout the body. And according to the USDA and the California Date Commission, dates are higher in antioxidant polyphenols than any of the most commonly consumed fruits and veggies. Who knew?

Clearly, dates are one of the healthiest natural sweets in the world. So skip the Snickers and enjoy a few Medjool dates as a between meal pick-me-up! Or, eat some dates for dessert. They make an ideal finish to the new standby healthy comfort meal (made famous by Natalia Rose), avocado salad and baked sweet potatoes... or any well-combined starch-based or nut-based meal.

Personally, I love to eat dates with bananas and organic yogurt, or with nuts. Dates are especially tasty when paired with whole raw almonds or walnuts. You may also stuff them with raw almond butter or dip in sesame tahini. Either of these dreamy treats will digest best if eaten after a salad or along with some raw veggies like celery, carrots or romaine lettuce to help escort the dense fruit-nut combo through your body.

Of course, if you live around Treasure Island you can always just take a walk outside your door, do some wild food gathering and make a breakfast out of freshly dropped dates, plain and simple. Back home this time of year, it's leaves that are dropping from trees ablaze with the warm colors of fall foliage but here in Florida, it’s date season and the picking is fine.