Hey! Remember me? I am still here. I think. So, fall has arrived in Chicaca. School is in full swing for Otherhalf. Blah dee blah dee blah. . . Let’s get down to business, shall we?
We have been bad. (This sounds vaguely familiar . . . ) Otherhalf and I have been eating a lot of desserts. We got into the cinnamon rolls at Mariano’s. Not the iced ones. The ones with the cream cheese frosting. This is all fine for Otherhalf, as he is training for the Chicago Marathon (which is next SUNDAY!!), and doing plenty of cardio. He is looking real good. I, on the other hand, have been lacking severely in the essersize department, and this girl is feeling icky and sluggish and gross. I was hoping to train vicariously through Otherhalf by being supportive, but it don’t work that way.
Womp, womp.
But all is not lost!! I actually got my ass on the bike yesterday AND today. I am going to make it a thing! And when I feel the need to eat better, I flip through the recipe notebook that Rinny and Nick shared with me through Evernote. They do lots of Paleo recipes (which is pronounced “PAY-lee-oh” not “puh-LAY-oh” like I was saying in my head all this time), so there are some recipes I never would have searched out, but it’s nice to have some healthy alternatives to satisfy my wicked sweet tooth, and I’m usually game for something new to try. I had a sweet potato that was sitting around, and a bunch of dates that I needed to use up before they expired, so I decided to try this recipe for “Chocolate-Mint Cookie Dough Bites” which came from THIS website.
As did this lovely photo.
And it really really reminded me of Chef from South Park and his Chocolate Salty Balls. Remember this guy? Sing it, Chef!
Heeeelarious!
So I threw them together to try ’em out. They were so easy to make.
Process the bejesus out of 1 cup of coconut. And then process some more, so it’s almost powder. Add 1/2 cup mashed sweet potato (I cut a small one into cubes and steamed it. Took 5 minutes.), 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa, 3/4 cup chopped dates, a big ol’ pinch of sea salt, and 1 tsp. of mint extract (I didn’t have mint extract, I only had almond and vanilla. I added 1/2 tsp of each as I think an entire tsp of almond extract would be gross.) Process and scrape, process and scrape . . .
lookin’ kinda chocolatey!!
. . . and process again until you end up with a dough ball. Then roll that brown dough into some balls. You can make big balls or little balls, but the best size is whatever fits in your mouth! OH!
Refrigerate these bad boys (yes, they are boys) and periodically grab one out of the fridge and pop in mouth. I have had like 4 or 5 already this evening, which ain’t no big deal, cause they’re made out of sweet potato and dates! They are in no way a substitute for actual real cookie dough. But if you go into it knowing it’s a healthy alternative, they ain’t half bad. Next time I am going to really actually use mint extract and see how that goes.
dishertation 