As promised, I am finally getting the protein date ball recipe up! Similar to my homemade larabar (Loribar) recipes:

These are quite easy to make. I used medjool dates for this, so keep in mind they will vary a bit in moisture depending on the brand and type of dates you use.

Ingredients:

8 ounces of dates

2 oz of cashews or almonds (or any nut, really)

1 tablespoon of coconut oil

2 tablespoons dried unsweetened coconut

1 tsp cinnamon

30 grams of unflavored brown rice protein powder:

In a food processor, grind the cashews up to meal consistency.

Add the dates and pulse to chop, then spin until the mixture blends together:

You actually could form into balls at this point and have a basic Larabar. Or continue on. Add in the cinnamon and the protein powder:

Using your hands, knead the protein powder into the mixture as best as you can. It will still be somewhat dry:

Add in the coconut oil (melted) and the coconut and knead will with your hands until everything is incorporated. This takes a bit of time for the protein powder to hydrate with the oil.

Roll into ball size of choice, or press into a loaf pan lined with plastic wrap. You need to use a lot of pressure to keep these formed, so I kind of press into ball shape. In the loaf pan use something to help press the ‘batter’ in. If using the loaf pan, lift out the batter and use a pizza cutter to cut into bars:

If you store these in the fridge, the coconut oil makes them nice and firm. I could see dipping them in chocolate (did I say that??)

I am going to give a total for the entire batch, as you can determine how many pieces you get. You can do probably about 2 to 3 dozen balls or so?

Batch total: 1102 calories, 49 g of fat, 146 g of carbs, 20 g of fiber, 39 g of protein.

I have to say that I love these! Easy to pop, though – so be careful, since they are nutrient dense. If you use a whey protein powder, you may not need as much coconut oil, so experiment away. I use unflavored protein powder, as I really like the flavor of the dates by themselves, but let me know if you use a flavored one how it tastes!