Chocolate Peanut Butter Energy Balls

I wanted to use up the rest of my dates from Christmas, so I came up with these Chocolate Peanut Butter Energy Balls. Sort of part peanut butter ball, part DIY Lara bar all rolled into one healthy little gem for some energy on the run, or to satisfy your sweet tooth. Packaged protein bars are like hummus to me... you can do this, people!  You can make A LOT of really yummy protein treats that taste superior to anything store-bought without a long list of ingredients, and once you make them, you will wonder why you never did it sooner.  I pretty much threw 4 basic ingredients - nuts, dates, cocoa and nut butter- into the food processor willy-nilly and rolled the mixture successfully into balls. These can easily be customized to suit your tastes with substitutions and additions as you please. 

Mix the following ingredients into the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the mixture starts to come together. Add a small amount of water (a teaspoon at a time) if the mixture appears too dry.  You may not need any.

1 cup of soft, pitted dates
1/2 cup each, almonds, walnuts and unsweetened shredded coconut
4 tablespoon of cocoa powder
2 tablespoons of natural peanut butter
1 tablespoon of coconut oil (optional)
a splash of vanilla
a pinch of salt and cayenne pepper

Form into small bite-sized balls, roll in raw, shelled hemp seeds, and refrigerate. You can likely press the mixture into the bottom of a parchment lined square pan, refrigerate, and cut into bars if you prefer.

Experiment with different combinations of nuts, try almond butter in place of peanut butter, swap out a couple tablespoons of the cocoa powder for protein powder. North-Coast Naturals Organic Hemp Protein is my favourite brand for smoothies and such. It contains no ingredients other than pure powdered hemp.  Try some chai spice or cinnamon, roll them in toasted coconut, sesame seeds or cocoa, add some finely chopped dried fruit.  Sky's the limit here.