Despite the fact that I work in a kitchen, there are some days I come home with the realization that I've consumed nothing more than a cup of coffee, a spoonful of soup, 5 black beans, 3 cubes of roasted sweet potato, a couple bites of a raw kale salad and MAYBE a piece of fruit. Even though I'm surrounded by food 10 hours a day, I'm so focused on making sure that customers are getting fed that I sometimes forget that this girl needs to eat too!
I usually have myself a pretty healthy breakfast, but if I haven't had a chance to have anything for lunch, the low blood sugar, headache and crankiness starts setting in around 4:00, which coincidentally happens to be the busiest part of my day. I'm way too consumed to even THINK about eating, but know that if I don't get some nourishment ASAP I will end up stress eating an entire bag of chips when I get home. Not so good.
I'm a big fan of energy balls, bites, bars or whatever you want to call them. Packed with healthy fats, natural sugars and protein they are just the thing that helps tide me over until I can have a more substantial meal.
These energy balls are packed with dates, almonds, coconut, peanut butter, oats, and lots of seeds (pumpkin, flax and sunflower). They are amazingly good and good for you. They're AMAZEBALLS!
Almond Amazeballs (Makes 12-14 balls)
From Dishing Up The Dirt
1 c. raw almonds
1 c. dates, pitted and chopped
1/4 c. ground flax seed
1/4 c. unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 c. almond butter (I used peanut butter)
1 T. coconut oil
1 t. cinnamon
pinch of sea salt
1/4 c. mixed seeds (I used pumpkin and sunflower)
1/2 c. oats
Place almonds in a food processor and process until finely chopped. Add the dates, flax, shredded coconut, nut butter, coconut oil, cinnamon and sea salt and process until uniform, but still a little chunky.
Place the seeds and oats in a large bowl. Add the date mixture and mix well to combine. Roll into balls and refrigerate at least 45 minutes before serving.
Store refrigerated in an airtight container.
