4.03.2013

Challenge Resumed, and A Treat

Monday was April first.

New month, new week (sort of.  I believe the week begins on Sunday, but I'm willing to let that slide), new challenge.
Game on.  Back on the scale.

Aaaaand... I gained six pounds in March. 

Aaaaaaaaaaaand... I've already lost three of them, because that's how water weight works.

I feel really good.  Not eating wheat, dairy, chocolate (Easter 1, Tasia 0.  Number of bags of mini eggs demolished: 2), or peanuts.  No more alcohol.  That wine the night before Easter wasn't even fun, because of course, I still had my glass in hand when Beansy woke up, angrily demanding nipple.  Ugh.

Anyway.  I assume that by next week, all of that residual weight will be gone, and we'll be back in the business of finding my abdominals under that layer of fatty fat fat.

I also wrote yesterday.  (Back pat, back pat!)
Beansy and I went to Powell's today and got Vegetable Literacy for me, and board books for her.  Then we went home and listened to Toddler Pandora and lay on the bed and read books and it was great. 

While she was napping, I made Date Bars.  

Basically, these are homemade Lara bars.  There are five ingredients, total, including salt and cinnamon.  They are breathtakingly easy and amazingly delicious.  I'm avoiding sugar, but I'll make an exception for dates.  

They make a great pre-workout snack, which I need at 6 AM when I am sneaking around the kitchen getting ready to go to the gym.  For some reason, every sound from the kitchen is amplified into the bedroom, but the reverse is not true.  And it's impossible to hear anyone talking from any other room.  Our house has a weird dynamic.  So there is no pre-gym coffee-grinding, and I feel like I sort of need a muffler for my breast-pump.

The way these bars work is that you pit ten medjool dates.  Look for dates that have a crisp sugary exterior, like you'd imagine date-bacon to be, and are otherwise squishy and soft.  Bigger dates are better.  You toss the pitted dates into your food processor with roughly an equal amount of walnuts (I did this by weight, but think it works out to about 3/4 cup chopped), and about half THAT weight (1/2 cup) of dessicated unsweetened coconut.  You shake in 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. cinnamon and throw in a fat pinch of salt, and then blitz everything together for two or three minutes, until it's almost a paste.  You roll this paste into a log and slice it into six even medallions, which then you can shape into bars, or truffles.  Whatever floats your boat.

If I were eating chocolate these days, it would not be above me at all to melt a little bit of 72% dark chocolate to dip these in.  Because that would be BAD ASS.  If you do this, let me know how it turns out.  Make sure to use a dark chocolate, because the bars themselves are quite sweet.

Date Bars

4.5 oz. (10) pitted medjool dates
3 oz. (3/4 c.) chopped organic walnuts
1.5 oz. (1/2 c.) shredded dessicated unsweetened coconut
1/2 to 1/4 tsp.  cinnamon
fat pinch of salt

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blitz for 2-3 minutes, until well combined.  The resultant mass should stick to itself lightly.  Squeeze into a log and slice into six equal medallions.  Shape them into bars or truffles.  Store in the fridge, or wrap them individually in plastic wrap and tuck them in a freezer bag and freeze.  They'll keep for a week in the fridge, or for months in the freezer.  I like the frozen texture better.  

Each bar has 198 calories. 

3 comments:

  1. I have all of these ingredients, and a cupboard full of chocolate that stares me down every time I'm in the kitchen...

    And I finally bookmarked this. Happy to hear you.

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  2. Yup, I've polished off two batches since this post. Next please!

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  3. Me again! I found your medjools today by accident at the grocery store. They do exist...cool. :)

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