Choc Coconut Balls

As a child I grew up eating my mums special home made golf balls (some people call them rum balls, oat balls, bliss balls, date balls, etc.) which I used to love as a child but could no longer have since going vegan as her recipe contained condensed milk so I decided to try and make some of my own. They taste almost exactly the same as my mums which just goes to show that you don't need things to like milk, eggs and butter to have delicious, tasty snacks. This recipe is super easy and quick which is great for those of you who are super busy and don't usually have the time to bake for 3 hours. I got the inspiration for this recipe from Bonny Rebecca's Carbolicious ebook although I did switch out and change a lot of the ingredients to make it my own.

Ingredients
1 cup of rolled oats 

7-8 medjoul dates (pitted)

1 table spoon of cocoa powder (feel free to switch this out for cacao powder if you would like a healthier alternative)

1 table spoon of rice malt syrup (you could also use agave syrup, maple syrup. Basically you want something to sweeten it)
desiccated coconut (to roll in)

Method 

1. Put all of the ingredients into a food processor and blend until well combined but not too gooey. If your mixture is too dry after blending then you can always add a dash of milk or some more rice malt syrup. 

2. Use your hands to roll the mixture into balls and then roll into desiccated coconut. If you don't like coconut then you could always leave them plain or roll them into something else like cocoa powder, crushed nuts or even drizzle some melted chocolate over the top.

3. Pop all the balls into a container and then into the fridge to set and voila! If you prefer them to be squishy and gooey then feel free to skip this step.

Dark Chocolate & Almond Popcorn

Winter is rolling around so quickly here in Australia and I can feel the temperature dropping everyday. This means that sunny days outside are slowly fading and snuggled up in bed movie days are becoming more and more frequent which I am by no means complaining about because I love the cold. Popcorn has always been a go to movie snack but sometimes just plain classic popcorn can get a little boring and repetitive so why not throw in some melted chocolate and almonds too create this delicious bowl of goodness. Its super simple too make and doesn't take much time at all which I love. Its safe to say that its slowly becoming my go to movie snack and it might just become yours too.

You will need...

- Popcorn
- Chocolate of your choice (I used the Nestle Dark Chocolate bits as they are vegan)
- Almonds
- Salt (I used Pink Himalayan rock salt as it is more natural than regular salt)

Lets Begin...

1. The first thing you need to do is pop your popcorn. I just use the raw packeted popcorn (which has no salt or butter added) from the supermarket that I just pop in the microwave for 2 minutes. Although you could buy popcorn kernels and cook them in a saucepan or even one of those cheap popcorn makers which is what I do sometimes if I feel like putting in the extra effort.

2. Next I crushed up my almonds. I started by blending them in the Nutri bullet which I wouldn't recommend as is kind of crushes them too finely. So instead I popped them into a zip lock baggy and smashed them using some weird utensil that I found in the kitchen.

3. Once your popcorn is popped and your almonds are crushed, you can then go ahead and melt your chocolate, again I just melt mine in the microwave because I'm lazy but you can always melt it in a saucepan if you prefer that.

4. Lastly, drizzle the melted chocolate onto the popcorn, sprinkle your crushed almonds on top and add a little bit of salt. You can leave it like that if you prefer a more gooey, wet texture but I like to put mine in the fridge for a bit to let the chocolate harden.

5. Snuggle up with your movie and your delicious popcorn which I promise you will become addicted to and enjoy.

Whats your go to movie snack?

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

After testing and experimenting with many vegan cookie recipes I think I have finally found the perfect one. These cookies are crunchy on the outside, chewy in the middle and I promise that you won't even notice that their vegan. I also made this recipe into a youtube video so if you prefer to watch it in video form you can do so here.

You will need...

1/2 cup of vegan butter (I used Nuttelex)

1 cup of self raising flour

1/2 cup of caster sugar

1/2 cup of brown sugar 

1 tsp of vanilla essence

3/4 cup of vegan chocolate chips (I used the nestle dark melts because I had no nestle dark chocolate chips at the time)

Method

1. In an electric mixer you want to mix the room tempreture butter on a low setting.

2. Next you can add in your caster sugar, brown sugar and vanilla essence and until well combined.

3. After that you can sift in your flour gradually, stirring in between with a spatula.

4. Next you can pour in the chocolate chips and stir them in.

5. Use your fingers to mould the dough into balls and place them onto baking trays with 6 baking paper. (Remember that they will expand and spread out in the oven so be sure to leave generous gaps between each cookie ball.)

6. Next I use the palm of my hand to flatten out the cookies slightly, this is optional but it makes them look flatter in the end result.

7. You want to cook them in the oven at 180 degrees celsius for 10-15 minutes. I cooked mine for 12 minutes and that worked perfectly for me and made them crunchy on the outside and chewy in the middle. 

8. Once there done cooking you can remove them from the oven and onto a cooling rack to cool and thats it. So easy and delicious!!

If you do end up trying this recipe, let me know what you think of them.