Paleo Almond Flax Brownie Bites
Hey y'all! Happy Tuesday. First - if you read yesterday's post and were a little confused about the lack of an elephant I went on and on about, I fixed it.
But today, I bring you this super yummy snack...but it warrants a tad bit of 'splaining. I mentioned that my sister Alex and I were trying a low-sugar thing. Our rules were made up entirely by us, and we were really just avoiding white, processed and added sugars. We gave naturally occurring sugars the green light, so fruit was fine. We also allowed alcohol for the occasional beer at night, and, this past weekend, bubbly to celebrate the Fourth (and to complement our very 'Murican bread and cheese plate).
Sunday marked two weeks of that experiment. Overall, I found it to be really helpful. There are two types of people in the world: salty snackers and sweet snackers. If you would choose Doritos over Oreos every time, you're a salty person, and vice versa. And I'm a sweet person. Realizing how often I reached for something sweet to satisfy my hunger was instructive. So too was the simple fact that as a nursing mama, I'm a bit, er, emotional about food. Meaning, if I get too hungry, hangry doesn't really describe it anymore. So I needed to come up with a list of easy-to-make and eat, including one-handed (the other being occupied by Wesley), snacks and small meals. The usual suspects, including handfuls of nuts and dried fruit, hummus and veggies, cheese and crackers and filling smoothies (more on those soon) were all present. But I was also on the lookout for something that would solve my craving for baked goods.
Specifically, brownies.
These are it. They take approximately three minutes to make and are super, super yummy. They are not, by any stretch, calorie or fat-free. But they're not brownies, either, and the nuts and nut butter make them surprisingly filling for such a diminutive snack. I highly, highly recommend. If you're skeptical about dates, this is a great intro recipe. It'll make a believer out of you, for sure. And though the typical recipe calls for walnuts, I find roasted, salted almonds to be the very best addition (other than Oreos, which are out for obvious reasons) to any snack, so I went with them. Also, I had them in my pantry, which helps.
Snacks like this are especially necessary since, this week, I've decided to try to excise the bulk of my complex carbs (I'm looking at you, Triscuits) as well. Yeah, sometimes I'm a bit of a masochist. But it's all really interesting, and designed to create a bit of a shift in how we think about food. Especially because we don't eat meat, we all (Alex, Bret and I) find ourselves devouring baguettes and the like every now and again, and I want to think about filling up on something other than that. So, here's what I'm thinking we'll eat, given low-carb and no-meat parameters:
What We're Eating this Week
- Monday: Oven baked butternut squash slabs stacked with roasted red peppers, arugula, feta and a balsamic drizzle (I'm making this one up)
- Tuesday: Grilled Corn Caesar Salad with "Chick'n"
- Wednesday: Mini Pepper Nachos
- Thursday: Tomato and Roasted Lemon Salad
- Friday: Crispy Tofu Nuggets...with some sort of veggie side
Now that we've had our inaugural What We're Eating this Week Segment (!), back to the matter at hand.
Paleo Friendly Almond Flax "Brownie" Bites
Inspired by Paleo Grubs Grain-Free Raw Brownie Bites
Ingredients (for about 12 bites)
- 1 cup dates, pitted
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tablespoons almond butter (or nut or seed butter of your choice)
- 1 tablespoon flax seed (or chia)
- 1/2 cup roasted, salted almonds (or nut of your choice)
Directions
1. Add first four ingredients to the bowl of a food processor and process until grainy in texture. Add almonds and pulse, leaving small chunks of almonds.
2. Use your hands to roll small, tablespoon-sized clumps of dough into bites.
3. If desired, roll bites in cocoa, coconut flakes or crushed nuts.
4. Refrigerate to set. It's best to snack straight from the fridge, but they're fine out for a bit as well.