I’m glad you enjoyed my Highlights and Review Post from yesterday where I recapped everything from the past week. And since last week was kinda a fun week being in Aruba and on vacation, there’s plenty of pictures from our trip And of course Pictures of Holiday Surprises And Foodie Pics But out with the old, and in with the new!! It’s a new week, a new year, and time for my first big recipe reveal of 2010: Averie’s Vegan Peanut Butter Vanilla Balls-No Bake/Gluten/Soy-Free/10 Minute Recipe! 1/4 c Peanuts 1/2 c Medjool Dates 1-2 Tsp Vanilla Extract 2 Tbsp Peanut Butter (*Note: I used Sunflower Seed Butter because hands down, this is my favorite nut butter but feel free to use Peanut, Almond, Sunflower Seed, Walnut, Chocolate PB, or any of the Fancy & Unique Nut Butters out there) Optional: 2 Tbsp Brown Sugar (If you like sweet treats like I do, add it. If you’re ok with less sweet things, omit or swap out with 2 Tbsp Agave or Maple Syrup, Stevia to taste, lucama powder, etc.) Yields: Approximately 22 Small-ish Balls Steps 1/4 c Peanuts Grind in VitaMix (or food processor of your choice) Add in the 1/2 c Dates, and the 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract Grind Add in the Nut Butter (Sunflower Seed Butter for me!!!) and the brown sugar or other sweetener if you’re using it Grind and Remove Dough and bring it to your working surface which for me is just a plate Form into balls Enjoy!!! These will keep for weeks in the fridge or freezer. Optional Recipe Tweaks/Alterations: Add 2 Tbsp PB2 to the Mixture–I think this would be excellent! Add a dusting of cocoa powder, carob powder, or powdered sugar to the finished balls Roll in Cinnamon & Sugar at the end Roll in Cocoa, Carob, Carob Nibs at the end Roll in shredded coconut Add 2 Tbsp Cocoa Powder to the Mixture for Chocolate Peanut Butter Vanilla Balls!! Add pumpkin puree to the dough, about 2-3 Tbsp for Peanut Butter Vanilla Pumpkin Balls Add 1-2 Tbsp Molasses to the Mixture for Peanut Butter Vanilla-Spiced Balls Add in chocolate chips, raisins or other dried fruit to the mixture Flatten or mold into larger cookie shapes Dehydrate or Bake for 5-7 Minutes in a 350F oven (just a guess on the oven time/temp) for more of a crunchy and less chewy ball I think the Vegan Peanut Butter Vanilla Balls are amazing because they are Vegan, gluten free, soy-free, no-bake (I would call them high raw but others may disagree with the labeling of that), and they are ready to go in less than 10 Minutes… ….But I adore them beause they are like beautiful little bombs of Peanut Butter, or in my case Sunflower Seed Butter!!!, going off in my mouth and they seriously rock my tastebuds. Plus, the little bit of Chewy Factor at play just makes them The Perfect Ball (for this week…haha! because, in the past, I’ve said that about my High Raw Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls And there’s my Raw Vegan Dark Chocolate Fudge Balls Or my High Raw Vegan Gingerbread Cookie Dough Balls my Vegan Sugar Cookie Dough Balls But really, I am totally groovin’ on the Peanut Butter Vanilla Balls. Or in my case, Sunflower Seed Butter Vanilla Balls (a mouthful to say and type!). They’re my newest Ball Obsession. And now, I present you with Ball Humor. If you don’t have a sense of humor or you’re mind is firmly out of the gutter, then go ahead and stop reading now. For the rest of us, enjoy my little Ball Jokes! Katie’s got some Sex Bomb Babies, too if you don’t get enough gutter-talk here! Juicy Balls Greasy Balls Soaking Wet (Sunflower Seed Butter) Balls Don’t Freeze your Balls Off! (these just came out of the freezer) You Must Have Ice Running Through your Balls! My balls are chilly! Don’t get your Balls in a Wad Stackable Stack-A-Ball (get it, ha-ha!) Go Thaw Your Balls Out (15 minutes post-freezer) Leaning Tower of Pisa Balls Ok, I’m Done….For now…. Moving Along!!!! In an effort to free up some room on my memory stick for my camera, I accidentally deleted a mere 1000+ pictures! Good thing they’re all on my iPhoto and good thing that’s Backed Up in my Backup Drive. Remember this post, whew, good thinkin‘! Accidental deletion Included some of the just-captured dinner pics so I don’t have tons, but nothing new here, as I mentioned in the last post: variation on a kale theme is the dinner du-jour. As in, every “du jour”. Hey, kale & brock are my crack. I love it and there are far worse things than being in love with greenery! Tonight’s dinner was the standard Kale, Cauli, Brock, & Cuke Salad Din-Din With Homemade Vegan Slaw Dressing Earlier in the Day, I made Scott a bowl of oats with cinnamon, brown sugar… …and garnished it with banana slices and butterscotch chips. He said it was great!!! Dessert for me, but is there even a question? Vegan Sunflower Seed Butter Vanilla Balls!!!! Yoga Today is Kukkutasana Full lotus first, but be sure to warm up your Hips and pay attention to your hip opening, rather than just thinking this pose is about the knees, when entering full lotus. Then, insert your arms through the holes. Then lift off. Lean Forward if you’re lifting off. Way more so than you think you need to. You need to bring your center of gravity forward or else your bootay is going to weigh you back and downward and you won’t achieve liftoff. Tip of the Day: Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why it is called the present. Stop living in the past thinking what if this had happened, or what if I had done that. And equally so, try not to let your mind race to the future. It will be here soon enough. No need to try to map out each and every step of the way. Our yoga, our work, is living mindfully in the present and honoring the life we have in front of us Right Now and finding beauty in the present. I am just as guilty as the next person of not living in the moment. I don’t ruminate about the past. I don’t live with regrets. I let go of things very easily. However, I am a planner, controller, organizer, orchestrator, and it is my work to not obsess of the future and the what if’s down the line. What’s your work? Is it easy for your to live in the present or do you find yourself either trying to re-write history and the past, or do you jump ahead of yourself and try to forecast the future and plan everything out, step by step? Fill me in! And to keep it lighter, you can also feel free to give me any Ball Jokes and one-liners if you’ve got ball jokes burning a hole in your pocket! Stay Tuned For A Fun Facts Post…
