Charles Schulz, one of the most influential cartoonists of all time, gave us Peanuts, Charlie Brown and Snoopy. You don’t draw 18,000 strips of cartoon over 50 years without knowing what’s what. This man speaks sense. I present to you Exhibit A:
“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” ― Charles M. Schulz
Hardly a truer word spoken every in my opinion. Chocolate gives me life. We cannot survive on love alone as we all know – so surely chocolate is the best accompaniment. Life would be entirely dull without it.
Raw Cacao is readily available in all supermarkets lately. Gone are the days where I used to trek 40 days and 40 nights to ear popping altitude in order to secure a pack of this wonder-stuff……ok I may have embellished my quest – but who has time for 4 different shops for the weekly shop? This Amazonian Superfood has 40 times the antioxidants contained in Blueberries. the highest plant-based Source of Iron and is full of Magnesium for a Healthy Heart & Brain. Cake and eat it anyone?
The chocolate chips can be replaced by Cacao Nibs should you wish to keep it completely free of refined sugar. However I like to live on the edge. This is about as rock’n’roll as it gets in my neck of the woods.
Wait a minute…..wasn’t I sprawled on my landing in my underwear at 1:30am last Wednesday night??? That didn’t even happen in my 20’s!! You may need context on this one…..you can see it on my Instagram here. Oh those kids keep you on your toes.
Go on – don’t be hurtin’. Treat yourself with none of the guilt. And remember to share – they are still treats!
No more excuses to wolf back mountains of biscuits each night with your tea. And no more putting it off. You can buy all you need for these in your weekly one stop supermarket shop and if you have rolled Morla (none of this fancy pants plasticine here folks…..y’all remember Morla? Or is it Mawla?….I’ll let ye sort that one out between yourselves) you can make these!! Even loveable Charlie Brown wouldn’t get these wrong.
Ingredients
130g Almonds
70g Hazelnuts
200g Dates
3 tbsp (heaped) Oats
Pinch Sea Salt
2tbsp Raw Cacao or alternatively good quality Cocoa
50g Dark Chocolate Chips
Method:
Pre-heat oven to 180C. Roast nuts for 8 minutes – until slightly golden.
Put your nuts in food processor and blend until they are broken up to resemble a very coarse flour. Put into a bowl.
Simmer dates in 1 inch of water until they have soaked it all up – or for about 5 minutes.
Pop dates into food processor and blend until they form a ball.
Put the nuts back in with the other ingredients apart from the chocolate chips. Blend until they are well mixed. You may have to add a little more oats at this stage depending on your dates. If the mixture is a little wet just add more oats and blend.
Add chocolate chips and give a quick blend to disperse them but try not to break them up completely.
Roll the mixture into balls and place them in fridge for 30 mins.
Serve with a cup of tea, your feet up and congratulate yourself on making it through another day.
Store any survivors in a sealed box/jar in the fridge for up to 1 week.
Your’s, dreaming of bedtime and pj’s……oh and of course chocolate,
Cli xx
