ISLABORG: Mocha Date Nut Balls

You've probably all eaten or at least seen something like this before, seems like everyone has a personal recipe and there are probably a billion recipes for this kind of snack out there on other blogs, so have a look around, but this is just my personal favourite and maybe some of you will like it too. It's a quick and very easy recipe and a good way to get your daily nut fix throughout the week, so I make a new batch every week and usually eat 2 of them per day. The good thing is that you don't need a powerful mixer or food processor at all, I use an attachment with my immersion blender and it works just fine. You can eat them plain or crumble them over a bowl of müsli or oatmeal instead of nut butter. Yumm!

Ingredients
1/2 cup cashews
1/2 cup almonds
5 x dates, pitted
1/4 cup raisins
1 tbl flax seeds
1 tbl Dutch cocoa
1/4 tsp instant coffee
1 tbl + 1/2tbl water
Popped amaranth or other for coating (see notes)

1) Dump all of the ingredients, excluding water, into your food processor and blend to the desired texture, I like some crunch (see photo below).
2) Add water and blend for another couple of seconds, this is just to distribute the added water, you could also use a spoon or fork for this.
3) Form into balls (approx. 1 tbl per ball) and roll in popped amaranth.
4) Use an air tight container to store these in your fridge.
Done!

(Makes approximately 13 balls)

Notes
• Almonds I used the cheap kind from the baking aisle instead of whole almonds. You can use raw whole almonds with or without skin if you want.
• Dates Adjust amount depending on the kind of dates you're using, mine were medium sized.
• Raisins Raisin haters can leave these out and just add some more dates instead or reduce the amount.
• Coffee Instead of instant coffee, you could replace the water with freshly brewed espresso.
• Coating I had some popped amaranth around, I like it for it's neutral taste and apparently you can even make this yourself: How to pop amaranth @ eHow. Alternatives: grated coconut, cocoa powder, toasted sesame seeds, cookie crumbs, chocolate shavings or sprinkles, oats.