Raw Cacao Energy Balls!

Hi everyone.

This is the best energy ball recipe that I've ever tried! And its so easy to make, you just put everything in a food processor and pulse! I use raw cacao to make it a chocolatey flavour, combined with dates and almonds to give you the perfect energy hit. As they contain lots of fibre, protein and natural sugars these balls are the perfect snack when you're on the go. Almonds are the key ingredient, they are rich in healthy mono-saturated fats which lower your cholesterol! They are also an excellent source of vitamin E which is really good for your skin hair and nails! 

I'm going to be taking these as healthy snacks to womad festival this weekend to keep me energised throughout! As I'm vegan and gluten free it's often difficult to find food at festivals that is yummy and healthy, I'm going to be doing a blog post next week about tips and tricks to keep healthy at a festival so look out for that!!

You will need:

• 1 cup raw almonds
• 1 1/2 cup medjool dates (this may vary depending on the size of your dates)
• 4 tbsp cacao powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• Oats and chia seeds to roll

To begin, place your nuts in a food processor and grind into small pieces. I like to keep mine quite chunky so I get chunks of nuts in each bite but if you aren't a huge fan of nuts you can grind them down into a smooth flour. Then add your pitted dates, the dates I used were fairly small so if you have bigger ones you may need less. Just keep adding until you get a sticky ball of mixture. Once your nuts and dates are combined, add your vanilla extract, cinnamon and cacao and pulse again. You should be left with a cookie dough consistency. You can now begin rolling! I roll them into about 3cm squared-ish balls and then coat them in chia seeds and oats so they dont stick together! 

You can then place them in the fridge to set, or just eat them straight away!

Hope you enjoyed this recipe, remember to use the hashtag #MoosFood on instagram!

Love Moo x