Had a great day today, highlight was teaching office yoga in a room with stunning 5th floor views of Dublin and one wall papered as above.
Enjoyed a sugar-free Latte after teaching office yoga in town and realised I don’t need sugar in coffee anymore, though probably will go back to it after Lent is over, only 4 days to go!
And the biggest highlight, apart from my Mam and Aunt visiting and babysitting, was that my chickenpox-covered kid returned home from the UK with his Dad and was full of hugs, aww 😉
As for the Protein Balls….
These were interesting. Felt like a Lent snack, i.e. completely sugarless and wishing for my Easter Egg to hurry up and arrive already!
Jonathan said they need another ingredient, either beetroot or courgette, something to make them a bit more-ish.
Must confess, I did some trickery on the ingredients, which may have caused the dry, tasteless result. In keeping with Lent, I didn’t want to use chocolate chips, so used 1/2 cup of bournville cocoa powder instead. So yet again I failed to follow the guidelines… and surprise surprise got a failed result!
I managed to fully eat one by heating it up in the microwave, while smothered in maple syrup.
When Lent is over, I’ll be trying this recipe with dark chocolate chips included, it looks good: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chocolate-protein-balls/
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Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups canned chickpeas, well-rinsed and patted dry with a paper towel
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons (165 grams) natural peanut butter
1/4 cup (80 grams) honey (agave would be amazing too!)
1 teaspoon baking powder*
a pinch of salt if your peanut butter doesn’t have salt in it
1/2 cup (90 grams) chocolate chips
* If you need grain-free baking powder, you can use 1 part cream of tartar + 1 part baking soda + 2 parts arrowroot.
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350°F / 175°C.
Combine all the ingredients, except for the chocolate chips, in a food processor and process until very smooth. Make sure to scrape the sides and the top to get the little chunks of chickpeas and process again until they’re combined.
Put in the chocolate chips and stir it if you can, or pulse it once or twice. The mixture will be very thick and sticky.
With wet hands, form into 1 1/2″ balls. Place onto a piece of parchment paper. If you want them to look more like normal cookies, press down slightly on the balls. They don’t do much rising. Bake for about 10 minutes.
Yields about fourteen 1 1/2″ cookie dough balls.
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Easy to make: 10/10
Taste: 2/10
Toddler friendly: Haven’t tried yet, but highly doubt it!
Enjoy….
rutheburke 