Peanut Butter Chocolate Balls

The first of many guest posts coming up in the next week!!  

Kristina from Spa Bettie is here today, with another tasty dairy free treat!!

Make sure to check out her blog, it’s wonderful and jam packed full of beautiful bright photography and the cutest puppy around!

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I am honored to guest post for Jessica while she is getting married and enjoying the sunny beaches of Mexico! Congrats, again, Jessica! So happy for you and excited to hear about all the details!

First I'm sharing my recipe for a great energy snack I make all the time, then showing the special adaptation I made just for Valentines Day and for Jessica!

Of my many no bake energy ball recipes, and this is the most popular at our house:

peanut butter chocolate ball

1 cup peanut butter 1/2 to 3/4 cup millet puffs 1/4 cup cocoa powder

Combine peanut butter and cocoa until blended; add puffs. You may need to mix and adjust, mix and adjust. I added more peanut butter after I started rolling – they do stick together.

Makes 20 one inch balls, with some sampling as you go. Store in refrigerator.

For Valentines, for friends getting married, for a Saturday afternoon, I made this recipe into a tasty treat.

Instead of shaping into bite size pieces, simply flatten the mixture into a pan -

I used a 9x9 square. Melt a package of vegan marshmallows -

I used Sweet Sara chocolate peppermint

YUM! Spread the melted marshmallows over the top, refrigerate to set.

The chewy top with mild peppermint flavor is a perfect marriage with the nutty chocolate base. Thank you again,

Jessica for having me here while you are in Mexico! I wish you and David the best!

Alternatives for Valentines Day…

So if this is your first dairy free Valentine’s Day, you must be feeling sad…

Chocolate is basically the theme of Valentines Day and there isn’t much chocolate or yummy desserts out there that you can easily find…

So I’ve done another round up for you, of YUMMY dairy free deserts!!

First off… RAW Lemon Cashew Cheesecake…  Oh yes, you heard it right (AMAZING)

I even made if for some cheese cake lovers, and they said it was delish.

Up next, RAW banana lemon pie… another winner here folks.  This one was made at my raw food course this summer, and was easily one of my favorite pies ever!

Or how about a dairy free ice cream sundae?  With chocolate sauce AND caramel sauce?  What a treat!

Then of course, there is my favorite… “Chocolate Crinkle Love Affair Cookies”  You all know these are my FAVORITE!!

Another recipe well know in blog land is some Cashew Cream!!  Basically you soak cashews, rinse then and then blend them with water.   You can add in orange zest, vanilla bean or whatever you like and volia – you have a yummy cream sauce for over any of your deserts,   check out here for the exact instructions.

Last but not least… if you go to THIS link – there are a TON of video for raw/vegan (aka dairy free) desserts!!

What do you think?  Are you feeling better now about the day of LOVE (and chocolate?)

If you have a great dairy free treat link – please feel free to post it under comments or on my facebook!

Since I won’t be here to say it.  If you celebrate Valentine’s Day – Happy Valentines Day to you!!  If you don’t – then… have a nice day on that day…    

  Ps.  Today is my last day of posting manually – every other day is set up to do it automatically, so please come back, even though you might not see me on facebook or twitter!! I have some great guest posters up for you, and on my actual wedding day, a picture of my dress!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PftP–Peanut Butter Cup Makeover!

PftP – (Post from the Past) Every once in awhile, it’s fun to take a peek at past blog posts and see what was shaken back in the day. 

This one is perfect for a Valentine’s Day treat for your hunny (or friends!)!

I made this recipe HUGE – but using the “tiny” cupcake papers works the best!!

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Without further ado….

wow... yum... Peanut Butter Cup Makeover!

Well I finally did it, I remade the peanut butter cups - I "dairy free betty-ified them! hehe..

Here is the original (with my tweaks!)
Peanut Butter Cups (Reeses)

• 1 11-12 ounce bag chocolate chips (dairy free of course)
• 2 tbsp shortening (ewwwwh… how about coconut oil)

Filling:

• 1 cup peanut butter (smooth works best)
• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1 tbsp butter, melted (skip it… feel free to add 1 Tbsp nutritional yeast for a more authentic flavor)

Melt chocolate chips and shortening. Fill paper muffin cups ¼ full and spread chocolate around the sides. Place in freezer to harden.
Filling: Mix 3 ingredients and chill. Roll in balls and place in cups. Pour melted chocolate over top. Chill until set.
Here is mine dairy free/healthier/vegan recipe!!
Here are the stars of the show...

1 11-12kg of DAIRY free chocolate - the decedant from Superstore is awesome!!

2 TBSP - Extra Virgin Coconut oil

Melt these two together in a double bowler (or whatever you have)

This chocolate melts very easily - and the coconut oil added some coconut flavor which was good.

Fill your muffin tin a little less than 1/4 full (my bottoms were hard to bite through, too thick)

And pop into the freezer until hard.

I used a flexible muffin pan, so I could pop them out

ps.  it makes way more than 6, but I just made a smaller batch.

While they are hardening and mix together

1 cup icing sugar

1 cup peanut butter until it looks like this...

(I didn't use the butter)

Roll into balls and add to the chocolate, leaving some room on the side for the chocolate to seep over.

Then cover with the rest of the chocolate... and make sure every little bit is covered.

I knocked mine on the counter to get it all even.

Then pop them back in the freezer until hard!!

Look at this lovely baby

Well SUPER BABY it was HUGE!!

I would make the chocolate way thinner next time.. It was like a full time job to try and bite through it.

It was sooo good.  The tiny hint of coconut made it yummilicious!

The test is when Dave get's home... Dave's first love is peanut butter cups, I come second.. hehe

just kiddin...

Let me know if you try these?

I would 100% do these again (many times)

If you use paper liners then you would have the cute reese peanut butter cup look!!

Dessert Hummus

Dessert Hummus… would you believe me if I said it was amazing?

Even if the picture wasn’t that good? ( I was too interested in eating it, than making it look pretty)

This involves – chickpeas, maple syrup, peanut butter, vanilla and chocolate chips.

I can’t personally give you the recipe for this though, as unfortunately this brilliance was not thought up myself!  Go visit Evan for the recipe, he is one brilliant guy,  and he also has a recipe for Snickerdoodle Hummus too!

I think I might play around with this amazingness and see what other flavors I can come up with!

*drools*

ps.  if your wondering why you are getting so many posts this week, I did them all in one day to keep you all entertained before I left!!  I wrote you all into my wedding to do list!! hehe