So these were supposed to be a yummy treat that Mia would love to eat and just pack her with nutrients and such, but it turns out she wasn't into them. Toddlers, right? But me? I absolutely loved them! Being the food enthusiast/Physical Therapist that I am, I brought them to work and shared them with my colleague and about half of my patients and unanimously we all agreed that they were amazing! To borrow from Cooks Magazine: "Tasters referred to them as 'delicious', 'abundently satisfying' and 'just right, such that you eat one and are completely sated'". Really, try them for yourself if you have an extra 3 minutes to spare. That is all it will take. Bonus, these are the kind of thing that you could put just about anything into and in fact, I used the little bits of about 4 different types of nuts and trail mixes just to clean the cupboard.
Oatmeal No-Bake Cookie Balls
- 1 cup whole oats (use certified gluten-free if needed)
- 1c mixed nuts (I used salted pumpkin seeds, walnuts, pecans and pine nuts)
- 4 dates, pitted
- 1/2-1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2-3 Tbls pure maple syrup
1) in food processor or blender, blend up the oats and nuts until they are finely chopped; add dates and blend until they are also finely chopped.
2) add vanilla and 2T syrup and pulse a few times to combine. This will still be very coarse in presentation (see photo below). Add more syrup as you see fit.
3) scoop up small hand fulls and smash into balls.
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| Pulsed without vanilla or maple syrup |
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| with the vanilla and maple |
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| too beautiful not to add a picture of them! Reminds me of working on a Kibbutz many moons ago.... |
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| scoop up a handful.... |
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| and smash it into a ball! Enjoy!! |