Day 273 Almond Date Cookies

Almond Date Cookies

8 Ounces Blanched Almonds
1 1/2 Cups Almond Flour
1 Pound Dates, pitted and halved
2 Cups Coconut Milk
3 Bananas
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
1 Cup Wheat Germ
1/2 Teaspoon Cinnamon
Ground Pistachios for toppings

1. Put the almonds in a food processor and pulse until it is the texture of sand.  Pour in a bowl.

Ground almonds

2.  Put dates and banana in a food processor.  Add the vanilla and Cinnamon to the milk.  With the processor motor running, slowly add the milk mixture.  Add to almonds.  Mix well.  Add the almond flour and wheat germ.  Mix well.

3. Pre heat the oven to 325 F.  Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Ground pistachios

4.  Roll the dough (it will be sticky) into 1 - 2 inch balls.  Press into baking sheet.  Top with 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon of pistachios.

Unbaked cookies

5.  Bake for 30 minutes.  Let stand till cool.  Cookies will the chewy, like date balls.  They will not have the texture of a traditional flour cookie.

Soundtrack Solange - A Seat at the Table

Day 194 Date Smoothie

Date Smoothie

3 Dates, soaked in water then chopped
1 Banana
1 Cup Frozen Mango
1 Teaspoon Seaweed
1/2 Cup Almond Milk

Mix all ingredients in a blender and process.

Soundtrack - Dave Matthews Band - Crash

New Stuff

Oatmeal

A trip to the grocery store means lots of new recipes to try.  I started with a crock pot oatmeal.  This is another way to cook the steel cut oats without a lot of work.  Before bedtime, the oats, frozen mixed vegetables, water, cinnamon, vanilla cashew milk and nutmeg are added to the pot.  In the morning, breakfast is ready.  The cashew milk was a new item, I had been wondering when I would see this product.  I have not tried alone, but  it worked well in the oatmeal.

Later in the morning I made a drink from soaked dates, maca powder, cinnamon, ice and water combined in the blender.  It tasted like what I would imagine date milk tasting.

Lunch was a large salad of spinach, very strong purple onion, soaked almonds, red pepper and mushrooms.  The dressing was made with lemon juice, dijon mustard, maple syrup, olive oil, garlic powder, pepper and hemp seeds.

Maple Dijon Salad

For an afternoon snack, I made some raw cookie dough balls.  Walnuts, quinoa flakes, vanilla, and dates were combined in the food processor. Chopped chocolate chips were then mixed in.  The dough was rolled into balls and chilled in the refrigerator.

Cookie Dough Balls

For dinner we had a Pesto Pasta.  The pesto was made with basil, garlic, cannellini beans, pine nuts, nutritional yeast, lemon and olive oil.  The pesto was served over brown rice spaghetti.  The beans made the pesto much richer than regular pesto.

Pesto Pasta

A side salad rounded off the meal.  I mashed avocado and lemon juice together and topped spring mix with it.