My kids love sugar. They are crazy about the stuff. The more the merrier, as far as they are concerned. David loves it too, so I have to do my best to come up with treats that satiate their sweet tooth while still providing some nutritional value. I recently ran across a recipe for lemon-melt away cookies on Pinterest and I knew that I had to make it (I love anything with lemon). I made some very minor tweaks to the recipe (very, very minor) and I love the end results. They are like eating lemon cookie dough bites. David likes them but says that they taste healthy (uh-oh!) but it doesn’t really matter what he thinks because the boys love them (really love them) and they have been choosing them over candy (seriously… they L-O-V-E them). I keep catching David sneaking them out of the refrigerator as well, so they must not taste too healthy. These babies are gluten-free, vegan, raw and, best of all, they don’t taste like cardboard!
Meyer Lemon-Coconut Balls
Adapted from Hell if I Gnaw
Ingredients:
- 1 ½ cups almond meal/flour
- 1 ½ cups finely shredded unsweetened coconut
, plus extra for rolling
- 1/3 cup coconut flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 6 Tablespoons raw agave nectar
- Juice of one medium sized Meyer lemon
- Zest of one medium sized Meyer lemon
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¼ cup melted coconut oil
Directions:
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In the bowl of a food processor combine almond meal, coconut, coconut flour and salt. Pulse a few times to mix together.
- Add the agave nectar, lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla and pulse until combined.
- With the food processor on, slowly stream in the melted coconut oil (to melt my coconut oil, I run really hot water in the sink and let my jar of coconut oil sit in the hot water for a few minutes).
- Continue mixing until the dough starts to pull away from the sides.
- Remove dough from the food processor and form into small bite-sized balls (since we won’t be baking these, you can make them any size you want).
- Roll the balls in the extra coconut and place on baking sheet.
- Place the baking sheet in the refrigerator for at least an hour to chill (or eat them right away, like my children).
