More Sweet Treats

My life isn't just about food.  However, that's how it seems because all I have been talking about is food.  I am in the process of buying a house.  I have been looking for awhile.  I have seen several houses that seemed to fit, but they were just not meant to be.  I keep getting outbid or I'm not fast enough and they are already under contract.  It is really frustrating.  I just have to keep thinking positive and know that the right one will come.  When it is right I will know it and everything else will fit into place.  I am going to look at more houses this weekend so maybe, we shall see!  I just mostly want a place of my own for me an my girls.  Oh, I never mentioned them?  Well shame on me, my girls are the loves of my life.  They are the best, they are always there for me when I need them and they are just wonderful.  So this is Erin (she is laying on the other one whose name is Amelia)

Isn't she cute?!  The other is a pug as well.  Anyway.....back to the food!  So I was on Pinterest the other day which is my new obsession!  I just pin things so that I can look at them later which is what most people do I think.  Well I actually went back to one of my pins, another healthy sweet recipe, and it looked really easy and I had everything to make it so I said what the heck!  It's a recipe for no-bake peanut butter chocolate chip balls.  The original recipe called for oats, ground flax, wheat germ, coconut flakes, peanut butter, honey, vanilla, and chocolate chips.  For the most part I followed the recipe.  I played around with the original measurements and some of the actual ingredients.  One thing that I did that didn't change things too much but it saves you fat/calories is I substituted mini chocolate chips for regular chocolate chips.  I put in half the amount the original recipe called for but you still see them throughout the mix and you don't feel deprived of your chocolate.  Mix everything in a bowl till combined then pop it in the fridge to firm up.

 

Now from what it looks like, I was not too confident that it will firm up enough so that I could roll them into balls, but I went with it anyway.  I put it on the screened in porch (because it is stinking cold outside!), but you could put it in the fridge.  Instead of chilling it for an hour, I left it overnight because I fell asleep.  When I revisited the next day, I tried to roll it into balls and it still wouldn't hold together.  So I needed to add something to make it a little more sticky.  I didn't want to add more peanut butter.  I am trying to not use as much sugar in things, even though honey is a natural sweetener I didn't want to add more of that.  So since I have been working on healthy recipes lately I have several fruit pastes on hand.  What is fruit paste you might ask?  All it is is just any dried fruit reconstituted in water and then blended until smooth in the food processor.  I had apricot paste in the fridge

so I decided to use about a 1/4 cup mixed in and it did the trick!  It made my mixture sticky enough so that it would hold together when I rolled it into a ball.

So since it was quite sticky I sprayed my hands with cooking spray and the mixture stuck to itself instead of my hands.  To make them all uniform I used my trusty cookie scoop.  I love those things!  They make quick work of portioning anything cookies, cupcakes, truffles, I have even used them to portion my meatballs!  Once you form all your balls

cover your sheet tray with plastic wrap and pop them in the fridge to firm up again.  Once they are nice and firm you can pop them into a plastic container for storage.  Since they are not baked you do want to store them in the fridge and they will be there when you want a little sweet treat!  So next I want to play around with different nut butters and fruit pastes.  Also maybe adding some nuts and/or dried fruit.  The possibilities are endless!  Enjoy and keep cooking!  <3

No-bake Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Balls  

1 cup rolled oats
2/3 cup flaked coconut
1/4 cup ground flaxseeds
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup natural peanut butter (I used chunky)
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup fruit paste (I used apricot this time)
1 tsp vanilla

Mix everything together in a bowl, it helps to put the peanut butter and honey in the microwave for a couple seconds to thin it out slightly.  Chill the mixture for about an hour/overnight, roll into balls and store in the fridge.