One day, in country far, far away… uhm – correction, in an organic store close, close by, I discovered this new brand of raw-food bars. They have started a duel between my taste-buds and my wallet. One very much appreciates the most awesome surprising flavors and nutrients – the other cringes every time I add a few to the shopping basket. From that situation sprouted the idea to make my own healthy, yummy snacks, bursting with taste and highly saturated in random goodness. Vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants, all that stuff. Providing the body with high-quality, organic energy is good for many things and a well-nourished body is reflected in glowing, healthy looking skin. Even though these may not specifically fall under skin care, adding vitamins, minerals, fatty acids and other important building blocks to your diet is never a bad thing. Beautiful skin starts from the inside out!
It’s amazing at how delicious mashed-up, ground nuts with a few additions can taste. From that basic idea, the recipe below was born. Pretty much added everything I like. A bit of this, a pinch of that… oh, well why not some of that too, and that, and that… I’ve been dumping a lot of random different spices in my healthy smoothie recipes recently and it has never messed anything up (yet). Until the contrary has been proven, I believe you can’t go wrong with spices if you love them as much as I do.
On to the – for now – nameless bites. What do you call something with only raw ingredients, superfoods like cocoa powder, amazing meal powder, ground nuts, seeds, nut butters, organic dates and more? Raw Food Bites? Spiced Truffles? Superfood Pralines? Or simply borrow the name of this one ingredient and go with “amazing bites”… Oh well, what’s in a name.
On to the ingredients.
The Recipe :: Ingredients
- 8 – 10 dates
- 1/3 cup almonds (whole, to grind, or almond meal instead)
- 1/4 cup sunflowers seeds
- 1/4 cup sesame seeds
- 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
- 1 huge heaping tablespoon cocoa powder
- cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and black pepper to taste ( I did about 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, a bit less nutmeg and a tiny bit of pepper)
- 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon of each pumpkin butter & almond butter
- 1 scoop Amazing Meal (Vanilla Flavor)
- honey, a little over 2 tablespoons.
Making the Bites :: Directions
The short version goes like this: Throw everything together. Grind, blend, mash, mix, roll and shape. Not enough detail? Continue reading… đŸ˜‰
- Grind the almonds in a blender or coffee grinder and set aside. (Skip this step if using almond meal.)
- Measure dates and seeds (sunflower, sesame, pumpkin) and grind these together.
- To the date and seed mixture, add raw food powder (amazing meal or something similar), cocoa powder and spices.
- Mix well.
- Add almond butter, pumpkin butter and honey.
- Blend well until reaching a consistency that will allow you to roll the mixture into balls.
- Roll the balls into the ground almonds. They should be just about sticky enough to coat themselves with almond meal.
- Enjoy!
These are packed with nutrients, so don’t eat them all at once!
I don’t count calories. No idea how much one of these snacks contain, but they’re quite filling. Just stick to one or two a day. Or, if you eat them all at once, don’t make a new batch for – uhm – a month or two. Rough guess. If tracking calories is your thing and you’re willing to share, I would very much enjoy hearing the numbers for this “Spiced Nut Bites” raw food recipe.
Feel free to share your (raw!) thoughts & idea’s here:
