Hey friends!
Hope that you had a fabulous weekend. A highlight of my last few days included meeting up with my friend Trish and her little pup for a hiking doggie date….
Temperatures were in the 80s on Saturday, but it didn’t feel too hot because it was nice and breezy. Harley wasn’t slowed down by the warm weather and was her usual maniac, super friendly self.
Harley & Cody
Another fun thing I did over the weekend was volunteer with a group called CropSwap. The organization is dedicated to harvesting produce from farms, which would have otherwise gone to waste, and getting it to people who can’t afford to buy fresh fruit and veggies. As a health coach whose passionate about the importance of nutrition and eating a healthy diet full of whole foods, I wanted to get involved because I think it’s an awesome cause.
On Sunday morning we met at a farm in the area and harvested oranges to be donated to Feeding America. The farm had tons of pigs (lots of piglets too!), goats and dogs to play with. The pigs are apparently fruit hogs, and they love to eat orange after orange!
Another highlight of my weekend was food, obviously. I made this pancake combo – banana oatmeal protein pancakes with strawberries, blueberries & chocolate chips – two days in a row. How pretty are they?
Are you guys tired of my protein pancakes pictures yet? Don’t answer that… because I’m not tired of showing off my beautiful pancakes!
I spent a good amount of time in the kitchen experimenting. My Marine worked all weekend, and it always seems like when he’s gone and I’m not working and have some downtime, I cook and bake up a storm. He gets home and I’m all, “Hey try this… oooh have some of that!” and shoving food in his face. I don’t think he hasn’t any complaints about it though. 🙂
One of my weekend creations was today’s recipe: cinnamon almond butter date truffles. Recently I saw almond butter and dates paired together on Natural Sweet Recipes for this recipe, and I was inspired to combine the two for a truffle creation myself.
The result was so, so yummy that I ate a bunch of these babies the day I made them! I love that date bites are sweet enough to be considered dessert, but also healthy enough to be a nutritious snack, especially to give you some extra energy if you’re on-the-go.
By the way, how cute is the above customized cutting board that my friend gifted me for last Christmas?
Rolling them in cinnamon + brown sugar is totally optional, but in my opinion, it gives them an extra little fancy touch.
Cinnamon Almond Butter Date Truffles
Ingredients
For the date bites:
- 1 cup pitted dates about 18 dates/120 g worth
- 1 1/2 TSP cinnamon
- 6 TBSP creamy almond butter
- 2 TBSP hemp hearts
- 1/4 TSP sea salt
For dusting:
- 2 TSP light brown sugar
- 1 TSP cinnamon
Instructions
- Combine the dates, cinnamon, almond butter, hemp hearts and sea salt in a food processor. Pulse until smooth. The mixture should be pretty thick.
- Shape the mixture into 10 balls, rolling until each one is smooth and evenly shaped.
- Combine the remaining cinnamon and the brown sugar in a small shallow bowl. Mix together well. Roll each date bite in the cinnamon sugar mixture until lightly coated.
- Refrigerate the truffles for at least an hour to allow them to harden. If you have mini muffin tins and cups, you can place the dates in the tin to set. Otherwise, just place the bites on a large plate to set.
Notes
Nutrition
Tell me… What was a highlight of your weekend? When was the last time you volunteered somewhere?
Oh those look so good! I love the idea of CropSwap, it is such a great solution to not wasting food and helping those who need fresh fruits and veg. Good for you for getting involved!
Those pancakes are gorgeous! 🙂 And I’ve been really into date truffles like this lately, ever since I got my food processor. These sound amazing .. as does anything with cinnamon & almond butter, in my opinion 🙂
I love little snack balls like this. The cinnamon is a nice touch! 🙂
Hey don’t apologize for your pancakes!! They look beautiful and WAY better than mine!! Haha… inspiring! 🙂 Also these date balls look delicious! What a great way to fuel up on natural energy! LOVE it!
OMG swooning!! Love the pics of you and the pups! Made me smile 🙂 Looks like you are enjoying some awesome eats!!
What a cool way to volunteer. I wish I could get involved in similar activities here. These truffles are divine, I love the list of ingredients here!
Oh my gosh I can’t imagine anything more adorable than a piglet eating oranges 😀
Oh! I really want togo volunteer too! I love stuff like that – did it once in ATL and always meant to go again. And Vegas love pigs. LOVES. Haha!
What an awesome sounding organization! I love what they do! I wonder if there’s anything like that by me … I’m gonna have to check it out.
And these truffles sound so good – I LOVE that you used hemp hearts – I’ve been using them like crazy lately.
YUMMMM!! These date truffles look amazing.
I’m sure your hubby loves coming home to your recipes! These look fabulous!
And what a cool organization to be a part of! I love the cause behind it although I would have gone just to feed the piglets oranges. Ugh, they are so sweet!
Yum! These are kind of like LaraBars, only I love that you add hemp hearts to them! What perfect little balls of energy! 😉
Thanks for the link love! These truffles look delicious!! I love the addition of hemp seeds . And holy cow, the dusting is genius. I am a sucker for anything rolled in cinnamon and sugar. 🙂
I can’t wait to make these for my camping trip! Everyone raved about them today after the workout!