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.
Still on the sugar… gonna have to go cold turkey soon, it’s the only way. Too much yumminess in our cupboards and fridge right now though! Also I loved Breaking Bad! I got up to Series 3 I think and need to download the rest! Stuck on Vampire Diaries at the mo though (can’t believe I’m admitting that! Ha!)
Totally love the balls!!! I am dedicating my day to making them! I need a sweet, healthy treat!!
Even though I felt like I cleared the dessert table on Christmas, I am not shying away from my “sweet tooth”. I’m actually treating myself to a chocolate peanut butter ball tonight, but only 1 of course. If I eliminate sweets completely, they come back like an animal. So I try to do it in moderation…except for Christmas day.