Chocolate and Date No-Bake Balls

What makes more sense then making desert before making dinner? Nothing - except, maybe that chocolate tastes good even when you are full.

Work was great today, but the world got a whole lot more exciting when I got home and started playing around with some dates, raisins and a lot of vegan Belgian chocolate. My only regret is the banana - next time I will nix the banana and maybe try some coconut milk. Don't get me wrong - these balls are blissful (and totally satisfy my cookie cravings when my oven is 5 days away from its return home), I would just do something a little more exotic next time.

These are uber-easy and so tasty that you will skip dinner and just fuel up on these little nuggets of goodness.

Ingredients:

-20 dates (pitted)

-1/2 cup of sultana raisins

-1 cup of oats

-1/4 cup of cocoa

-1 banana

-1 1/2 walnuts

-1/2 cup of maple syrup

I guess having the chance to share some really exciting news with my family at a silly early hour this morning (they are six hours behind me) got me thinking about my mom, because I pulled out my hand me down Braun food processor in my afternoon ball adventure. With the Euro-adaptor this 15+ year old kitchen machine handle the voltage with no problem and was my accomplice throughout this yummy process. I also had a pretty handsome looking side kick who was right there rolling balls, pitting dates and experimenting with double broiling.

How To:

In a food processor crush the walnuts and pour them into a glass bowl. Add the dates, cocoa, raisins and banana to the processor and pulsh until you get a sticky mess. Add the walnuts, maple syrup and oats - this will give them a structure that allows you to roll these bad boys into tasty little balls of goodness.

I dumped the contents of the f.p. into a glass bowl and pulled out a golf ball size of 'batter' and rolled until I had a firm and well-rounded ball. K covered a plate with organic cocoa, which we then rolled the goodies through, covering them completely. We had a bit of inspiration at the last second and threw some chocolate into a do-it-yourself double broiler and rolled a couple of the balls in the liquid chocolate.

They were delicious and topped off a great dinner of tomato soup and steamed brocolli.

Really easy no-bake desert. I can imagine rolling them through coconut, crushed nuts, puffed millet etc.

And what did I have for dinner last night? Oh my.

I found some white Belgian asperagus at the market earlier in the morning and ended up making a great salad, (and some not so great artichokes). The salad was really just about the asperagus, but had notable guest appearances from balsamic mariantated red pepper and some simple grilled tofu steals. The lettuce was a beautiful red, again, from the market. Excellent and really satisfying - I feel summer and its salads, roasted veg (and my trip to Italy) right around the corner.