Hey friends, how’s it going?
Greetings from the east coast — my parents’ house in Jersey to be exact. Things around here are pretty up and down. As I talked about in my last post, I flew here because my sweet little grandma is really sick. When I’m not at the hospital or working, I’ve been trying to do things that soothe my soul a bit and help me keep it together. This includes fitting in an at-home workout this morning, going for a long walk with my brother’s girlfriend and their newborn baby yesterday, and having brunch with a close girlfriend today.
Yesterday after being at the hospital, I wanted to try to take my mind off of my grandma for a bit, so I decided to spend time in the kitchen whipping up some snacks and dinner for my family. My mom got a food processor last year that she had yet to open, so I unwrapped the packaging and broke it in.
My mom’s new kitchen gadget
Baking and cooking is such a stress soother for me. And as you probably know by now, I love to make food for people, and though my hubby is a happy eater of my creations, being at my parents’ gives me many more than willing tasters in my family members.
My creations from top left clockwise: a roasted red pepper hummus platter, mint chocolate chip date balls, rosti potatoes with goat cheese and arugula (recipe here), cinnamon raisin flaxseed granola (recipe here), and a mixed green salad with blueberries, goat cheese, & honeyed walnut -n- hemp seed clusters (recipe here).
In preparation for making this food, I made a stop at the food store, and while I was there I spotted mint chocolate chips. I love chocolate and I love mint, so I had to give these babies a try. Immediately what popped into my mind was to make date balls.
Date balls make such fun healthy dessert-like snacks. Next time I may put a few drops of peppermint extract into the date ball dough to make it have even more of a peppermint flavor, and I would have if I had some on-hand. However, they turned out tasty as is. Everyone enjoyed them and my sister said that these babies taste like Girl Scout cookies!
Mint Chocolate Chip Date Balls
Ingredients
- 12 Medjool dates pitted
- 1/2 cup sliced almonds
- 2 TBSP brown rice syrup honey or agave syrup would also work
- 2 TBSP unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup mint chocolate chips
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- In a food processor, combine the dates, almonds, brown rice syrup, cocoa powder and salt. Pulse until it forms into a sticky ball. You may need to scrape down the sides once or twice to get everything mixed together well.
- Mix in the chocolate chips, and stir with a spoon to mix them in there evenly.
- With moistened hands, roll the dough into 8 even balls.
- You can stick them in the fridge to harden a bit, or enjoy them a little softer as is.
Notes
Date balls – love em, hate em, never had em?
Love em! I mean I sell date balls for a living so I better lol We’re actually working on a mint chocolate flavour but think we’re gonna use peppermint extract since vegan mint chocolate chips are hard to come by!
Yum yum yum! I love peppermint.
I’ve never had date balls… but I might have to try this recipe because they look so good!
DO IT!!
Never had them, but I have a whole thing of dates just sitting there in the fridge. My sweet tooth is nudging me to give this a try!
My vote is for you to TRY EM! 🙂
All of this looks amazing! I want to try the red pepper hummus! Of course the mint chocolate chip date balls look amazing! I could go for one right now! 🙂
Thank ya! Red pepper hummus is really easy to make – you should definitely give it a go if you haven’t already (and so are date balls!)!
What a lovely recipe!! Dates are such a great dessert alternative to refined sugar! Great idea!!
Thanks! Totally agreed – when I have a craving for a little something sweet after dinner even though I’m not hungry, I always eat a date!
Sorry to hear about your grandma! I’m kind of going through the same thing, although it is a tad bit easier for me because we live in the same city. Warm wishes!
Thank you Tara! I’m glad to have read that your grandpa is doing better.
Just catching up on your blog now – so sorry to hear about your grandmother! My grandma’s on the East Coast too, and it’s so hard when you can’t be there all the time. So glad you can spend some time with her.
And those date balls look delicious! 🙂
Thanks Brittney. Yes it certainly is – the hard part about living far away from family is when someone is sick or something goes wrong. At least we can always hop on a plane if need be right?