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Healthy Energy Balls
1. To start, count out about ten dates and place them in a bowl. Soak the dates in water. If you think to do this an hour or more in advance, it's fine to use room temperature water. If you're pressed for time and only have a few minutes for soaking, use hot water. The idea is to soften the dates so that they are easily blended into a soft paste.
2. Measure out a cup of raw pecans and put them in a food processor.
3. Process pecans on low or using a pulse setting until they're nicely ground. You don't want to make pecan butter here - you're looking for nicely ground pecans.
4. Add a heaping teaspoon of quality cocoa powder. Blend or pulse for another few seconds to bring ground nuts and cocoa powder together.
5. Pit the dates and add them to the mix. It's best to add a little water to this recipe to create proper texture. A good way to add just enough, but not too much water is to lightly shake the dates as you get them out of their bowl of water, give them a gentle mush with your fingers, and add them slightly wet to the ground pecans.
6. Process on low or using the pulse setting until the dates and pecans come together. You want the texture to be such that you can pinch off teaspoon-size chunks and roll them up with your palms into bite-size balls. If need be, add another mushed up date or two, but always be conservative in adding extra dates, as once the mixture gets too moist, it's very difficult to fix by adding more nuts.
7. Roll the balls in dried coconut, cocoa powder, or any of your favorite raw nuts and dried fruits.
CALORIES: 40.6 |
FAT: 3.3g |
PROTEIN: 0.5g |
CARBS: 3.1g |
FIBER: 0.8g