Raw Cocoa Balls

The past few days I've been craving sweets.  I've also been craving beets.  No seriously.  I didn't just write that to make a rhythm.  A few weeks ago I had a roasted beet salad from Eclipse di Luna and have been craving it ever since.  I bought a beet tonight and plan on roasting it and trying my hand at making my own beet salad later this week.  But more on that later.

Back to the sweets.  I've been craving them like crazy.  Yesterday I gave in and bought a big chocolate chip cookie from Publix.  Ok, so I bought a sugar cookie too, but didn't eat the whole thing.  After lunch today I was craving sweets again and almost went to buy a snickerdoodle cookie from the American Cookie Company, but opted for the gym instead.  I figured I could sweat myself out of the craving.  It worked until after dinner.  I had the craving again.

And of course we having nothing sweet in the house.  So I went to the store and bought all the ingredients to make a healthy snack my friend Ashley emailed me about recently.  Raw Cocoa Balls.  I was skeptical at first, but figured they were worth a shot.  And she said they were yummy.  And its a simple "no-cook" recipe.

Here's what you need:

• 
  
  2 cups pitted dates
• 
  
  2 cups nuts (I used 1/2 cup each of almonds, pecans, cashews and pistachios)
• 
  
  4 Tablespoons Cocoa
• 
  
  1 Tablespoon vanilla

Here's what you do:  Place everything in a blender and chop away.  Form into balls.

They may not look too great, but they taste great!  Definitely satisfied the sweet craving and even had a little kick of saltiness for you salt lovers.  I finished off this little snack with a glass of milk and felt great about all my food choices today.   Happy eating!  Thanks for the recipe Ashley!  Keep um coming!

Up next in my recipe watch 2010, attack of the beets.   Now what does one do with a beet....hum.  Something to ponder.