Healthy Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownie Balls

I'm not a big believer in diets that eliminate complete food group like the Paleo diet and the Atkins diet. I personally believe that these diets aren't sustainable and the minute you go back to eating the things you eliminated, you gain all the weight back almost immediately. 

I am, however, a believer in forming a diet into a lifestyle that you can easily follow and incorporate into your everyday living. The diet/lifestyle that I try to follow is the clean eating diet. This means eliminating white flours, refined sugars, and additives from your diet.

I have to be honest with you though, I feel like I've been cheating on this diet since Christmas and I desperately need something to put me back on track. I decided to do a no-sugar challenge for 25 days to cleanse my body and get back in a good grove. 

The basic rule in this challenge is you cannot eat any food with added sugar. This includes natural sugars as well such as maple syrup, agave and honey. The only sugar that is acceptable is the sugar contained in fruit. 

The hardest part of this diet is going to be eliminating staple pantry items that have added sugar in them such as tortilla chips, Sriracha and ketchup. It's crazy how sugar sneaks its way into all of these things!

My hope is that after these 25 days, it will be so easy to get right back on the clean eating bandwagon!

Anyway, back to this recipe! I wanted to make a yummy chocolatey treat that I can have any time during this challenge. I tweaked my former power ball recipe to use dates instead of honey and it came out AMAZING. 

Dates are jam-packed with minerals which help strengthen bones and fight diseases such as osteoporosis. Dates are also great for digestion as they contain a ton of fiber which helps to cleanse the digestive track. Dates are also a great source of iron which help to make you feel more energized and less lethargic. 

In the picture above, I photographed cacao nibs in my palm. Cacao nibs are also a superfood (to be featured in a future recipe) that allow you to add chocolate to treats without added sugar. I bought them on Amazon.com here.

Ingredients:

15-18 pitted Medjool dates (taste as you go and add more if mixture isn't sweet enough)

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 cup oats

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup all natural creamy peanut butter

1 tbsp. water

3 tbsp. chia seeds

3 tbsp. cacao nibs (optional)

Directions:

1) Combine first 7 ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Taste for sweetness and add more dates if needed.

2) Add chia seeds and cacao nibs (if using) and pulse a few times.

3) With wet hands take a spoonful of the mixture and roll it into a ball. Place on a non-stick surface.

4) Refrigerate balls for 1 hour before eating/storing.

*Recipe will yield between 15-20 balls.

*Balls will keep in the refrigerator for 1-2 weeks or in the freezer for months.