Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Date Balls

This is me here trying to be nice and make a sweet little treat for the mr. And to prove to him (without him knowing) that he really does like dates because really, every one does they just might not know it.

Why do I care if he likes dates or not? Well I don’t think I really care but the past few weeks I have been making batches of trail mix with all sorts of goodies (dried fruits and nuts ) and have been chopping up dates and throwing them in as well. He’s been picking around the dates because he thinks they are gross. And that is just not true. He just doesn’t understand. So I made him understand. And understand he did when I made a batch and he ate them al within a day. Don’t like dates my ass.

These little chocolate covered peanut butter balls are freaking awesome. I would describe them as tasting like a soft, chewy, more nutty peanut butter cup and who doesn't want that? Plus they take little to no hands on time, require no oven, and all you need are just a a few ingredients. Win win win!

Are these little sweet peanut butter date balls made of love? Of course. Are they vindictive? Maybe a little but I don’t really care because they are awesome and everyone loves them. Even if they say they hate dates.

Now to the peanut butter date balls!

The stuff. Pitted delget dates, oats, peanut butter, chocolate chips, a little coconut oil, and flaky salt.

Soak the dates in hot water for a few minutes to make sure they are really soft.

Then you place dates, peanut butter, and oats into a food processor and blend unit la smooth stick dough forms.

Scoop and roll dough into balls and place into freezer for 1/2 hour or so to firm up.

And melt the chocolate with the coconut oil until smooth.

Once chocolate is melted, remove balls from freezer and start dipping them into chocolate. After a few are covered, sprinkle the tops with a few flakes of salt before he chocolate hardens.

And that is it. Place balls in a airtight container and keep in freezer. Eat whenever. And you will eat them fast because, BECAUSE! dates are delicious.

-C

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Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Date Balls

makes 12-16 balls

• 20 pitted delget dates ( You can use medjool but they are twice as expensive and sweeter., and bigger so only use 12 or so)

• 1/2 cup old fashion oats

• 1/3 cup peanut butter

• 1/3 cup chocolate chips

• 1 teaspoon coconut oil

• flaky sea salt

Start by soaking dates in hot water for 5-10 minutes until they soften a bit. Drain water and place the dates, oats, and peanut butter into a food processor. Pulse then blend until a everything is all blended smooth and a sticky dough forms. You are going to have to stop a few times to scrap the sides down. Once dough forms, take a spoon or scooper and scoop out the dough into 12 equal sized balls. With take each ball and roll around to make smooth and place on a plate or a baking sheet. Once all balls are scooped and rolled, place in freezer for 1/2 hour to firm up.

Right before taking the balls out, add coconut oil to chocolate chips and melt either in microwave (15 second intervals until melted) or on stove. Grab frozen balls (they don’t get hard, just firm), and start dipping them into the chocolate. After doing 2-3 three, sprinkle the tops with a couple flakes of sea salt.

Once all balls are covered( eat one) place in the freezer in air tight container until you want to eat them.

They should be good for a least a month in the freezer but I wouldn't know for sure seeing as these were gone the day after I made them. Both times.

Freezer Soup Bags

Has your garden exploded yet? Mine has, as has my farm share. So much goodness all at once. It is amazing and wonderful and I am constantly eating just to keep up with it. But no matter how much I eat (I eat A LOT) I still have an abundance of fresh amazing produce, which is exactly what I planned because I freeze a lot of stuff for winter.

Which brings me to soup bags. To know me is to know that I am a soup person, like I eat soup everyday all day, kind of person. And so having veggies on hand at all times for soup is a necessity. Sure I sometimes use fresh ingredients but more often then not, especially in the winter months (which will be here before you know it), I just grab whatever bag of frozen veggies I have in the freezer and that is that.

A few years ago I started being a little more strategic about how I freeze my veggies and started making bags that are specifically for soup. Hence soup bags.

What’s in a soup bag you ask? Well anything you want. Mine are usually filled with things like lots of tomatoes, zucchinis, onions, eggplants, pepper, and so forth. Basically whatever I hav an abundance of. Like right now. I am bagging a shit load of zucchinis and tomatoes. In the next coming weeks, I will do another soup bag day and there will be more sweet potatoes and roots in the mix. I tend to not add greens because well, honestly, I never have too many fresh greens, I alway just eat them all. But you can if you want. Thats the beauty of making them yourself. You choose what you stick in them.

Either food from your garden, farm share, or grocery store, doing this now will give you a good jump on some meal prepping for the future months. It’s a no brainer. You will thank yourself, and me, but mostly yourself.

To the soup bags!

The stuff can be whatever stuff you have plenty of or whoever stuff you usually put in your soups. Me, I just grabbed an armful of stuff that was overflowing from the fridge and counter. Eggplants, zucchinis, tomatoes, corn. onion, peppers, potatoes. Whatever you have and whatever you want.

Simple as can be. Just chop everything up. And sure, you could blanch things if you want but really, I have never seen the difference when it comes to soup and that is just one more step that you don’t need to take.

Once everything is chopped, bag it, adding whatever feels right. I just start tossing handfuls of whatever into the bags until they are full. Sometimes I will fill bags with more specific veggies and label them for specific soups, but most of the time, its just a mixture of whatever. And I am never disappointed when I dump a bag out and see the medley.

Oh, and corn. I always toss the cob into the pot when I am making soup, extra flavor, so they go into the bags too.

Then you just label and date them and pop those bad boys into the freezer.

And now you are more then half way to soup at any given time. Just pop a bag out, dump it into a pot or your slow or pressure cooker with a liquid of your choice (water, stock, crashed tomatoes), toss in whatever spices you are feeling, maybe add some lentils or beans, and voila. You are souping.

Is souping a word? Well it is now.

Souping. verb The act of making and or eating soup.

-C