EAT: The No Fun Balls

I ended up at a lovely photo of some chocolate balls, like a rum ball,  but a healthy version, on facebook recently.

Currently I am trying to reduce the junk I consume so that I don't ever have to exercise (I know it's not a great choice but it's really cold and I just hate the cold so much).

Anyway, it's my usual conundrum because as much as I hate to exercise I also love to eat.

I decided to try the healthy chocolate balls. The original recipe was in a facebook post  from A Healthy Mum, she has lots of lovely recipe options that I hope to try.

I made the recipe a few times over the week to see how it went and changed it a little each time.  I went out and bought all the ingredients, most I did not have in my cupboard and they were not all at the supermarket so it took a little bit of effort.

Every adult that tried them liked them a lot. The children, not so much.

I bribed my kids to eat them.

I added them to their lunch boxes with little else and still they decided to go hungry rather than eat them.

Mr H christened them "The No Fun Balls". They are no gluten, no dairy, no sugar and apparently for kids, no fun.

However, here is what you need to give them a go.

NO FUN BALLS

One food processor. You are then going to put everything below into it and whiz, whiz, whiz.


1 cup of pitted dates OR 1 cup of pitted prunes OR 1/2 cup of dates and 1/2 cup of prunes.

1/3 cup of desiccated coconut

1/3 cup of sunflower seeds.   - These were hard to find, I got mine from a shop that sells grains/nuts/seeds as my Coles had none.

1 1/2 tablespoons of Carob powder.   This was really hard to find. I got mine at the grains/nut/seed shop but I had to ask the man working there if he knew what it was. The packet was in a completely unknown language so I had to take his word for it.

This is Carob powder. (I hope).

1 teaspoon of vanilla paste   Again, this was something I don't usually have. I did find it in Coles. It comes in a very little jar and is up the top with the expensive stuff.

2 tablespoons of coconut oil is the official amount suggested, I ended up with more like one big one as I found the first batch a bit oily for me.

WHIZZING TIME.

Give the mix a good blend for a couple of minutes and then you are ready to squeeze them into shape.

The kids loved helping with the squeezy bit.

The balls will not roll like a traditional rum ball. You need to squeeze the mixture in your hands to get them into shape. Grab some mixture and squeeze it in your hands until it makes a firm ball.

Once you have done this, you will get about 10 to 12 No Fun Balls.

Pop them in the fridge to set.

Serve them up with cups of tea to friends.  Tell them first so that they don't expect a super sweet ball of sugary goodness. I told everyone they were so healthy we could have three each, which is exactly what we did. (I still haven't lost any weight).


Let me know if you can get your kids to eat them!