These cherry chocolate hazelnut balls are made with raw ingredients, perfect for curbing that sweet tooth in a healthy but tasty way.
This WIAW post definitely crept up on me. Short weeks are awesome in that kind of way. I’m expecting one of two things on all the WIAW posts today, either an excessive amount of cookies and sweets as people try to finish them up or, incredibly clean, detox kind of foods for those of us done with the sugar. I definitely fall into the latter category. Sugar be gone!
Just a pretty standard cereal bowl with Trader Joe’s shredded wheat, grapenuts, bananas, strawberries, some other nut/seed toppings and a small spoonful of Justin’s hazelnut butter. Also, lots of un-pictured coffee to get me through the first morning of work after 3 days of vacation.
Lunch:
A kale salad and dressing you’ll be seeing more of this week and a cheese quesadilla. Kale has never tasted so good after 3 days without any leafy greens.
Snack:
In an effort to not grab any more Godiva chocolates from the entire tin we have sitting in our kitchen, I made a new raw snack ball combination, cherry chocolate hazelnut. Delicious, satisfied my 2-3pm snack attack and it’s actually healthy. Beat that Godiva!
It’s disturbing how much fun I have photographing balls. I snacked on these while trying to figure out a feedburner issue that I discovered this afternoon. Apparently, my feed was broken for the past 4 or 5 days. By some miracle, I actually figured it out and fixed it myself (woohoo!) so sorry if you got a slew of posts all at once from the past few days. It should be working normally now.
Cherry Chocolate Hazelnut Balls
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup cashews
- 1/4 cup almonds
- 2 tablespoons Justin's chocolate hazelnut butter, or Nutella
- 2 tablespoons dried cherries
- 1/2 tablespoon chia seeds
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 tablespoon maple syrup
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients except maple syrup in a food processor and process until finely chopped.
- Add in maple syrup and process until mixture just starts to form a ball.
- Pour dough into a small bowl and roll into balls.
- Keep refrigerated.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Dinner:
After a 3 mile treadmill run and some ab work, where I totally figured out the key to planks not totally sucking,
I had a small piece of leftover Christmas lasagna with more of that kale salad. I officially deem lasagna the most unappetizing food to photograph.
Tea for dessert with an episode of our new Netflix obsession, Breaking Bad. I’m on a Mad Men hiatus because the drama between Betty and Don was making me all anxious. Seriously. Cooking meth and cancer seem to be better storylines for me.
Are you still indulging in holiday treats or done with sugar too?
Anyone else watch Breaking Bad?
Gina Matsoukas is an AP syndicated writer. She is the founder, photographer and recipe developer of Running to the Kitchen — a food website focused on providing healthy, wholesome recipes using fresh and seasonal ingredients. Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets both digital and print, including MSN, Huffington post, Buzzfeed, Women’s Health and Food Network.
Definitely not done with the sugar. My MIL makes this aaaaaamaazzziiinggg flan that’s really more like a cheesecake than flan but oh my gosh it’s so good. And there’s still some in my fridge. So once that is gone, then I’ll be done. Except there is still some cake and sprinkles ice cream in the freezer. So once THAT is gone, THEN I’ll be done… Probably… Maybe… Okay. No. Definitely not. Thankfully I don’t typically eat more than one sugary treat a day. The salty snacks are what get me.
Damn you, rielitos!
I love Justin’s, but for some reason, I have never actually tried the Hazelnut Butter! I need to buy some, ASAP!
I just found your blog from Jenna’s, and thank goodness I did – these hazelnut balls look great! I’ll have to try them! ps. Godiva chocolate is the best!
Sadly still on the sugar. I’m trying to get off though, or rather drop it down to a less extreme level!
Your food looks great. All that fruit and kale must do the body good. I feel inspired :)
I definitely have been detoxing – but not for WIAW eats yet! Post NYE though, I’ll need a month of detox meals!
Thanks for sharing the recipe! Looks great!
Everything looks yummy!
Love the blog – and the fact that you use nutella –
Loving all the greens. That’s what I’m doing too, haha. I’m curious about the combo of cherries and nutella. Sounds delicious :D
yummy! I love hazelnuts & hazelnut butter just sounds divine :) i’ve been getting your feed fine this week but whatever you had to do, i’m glad it worked out!