Citrus Protein Bites

I’m into week two of my personal reformation.   Another week – another snack.   A little different from  my Coconutty Lime Slice already on this blog.   I felt I needed a little more protein to give that feeling of being full.   Chia seeds and high quality protein powder tick that box.  I was rather generous with the amount of Virgin Coconut Oil in this recipe as I am wanting to increase my good fat intact, so another box was ticked with this recipe.  I’m enjoying using citrus in my recipes at the moment, there seem to be plenty of lemons on our tree just now.

Here it is ….

1  1/2 cups almonds / sunflower seeds / pumpkin kernels or a blend of all (use what you have in your pantry)

1  1/2 cups dates

1/2 cup high quality protein powder (I use Isagenix protein powder because it is undenatured, organic and tastes great, unlike some protein powders)

1 1/2 cups dessicated coconut

3/4 cup chia seeds

Zest and juice of 2 large lemons

1 cup Virgin Coconut Oil

In a food processor blend nuts/seeds and dates together.   Brace yourself, it’s a noisy job and hold onto the food processor, mine usually starts to dance on the bench!   Stop after about 30 seconds and then shake the contents a bit to mix up and blitz again a few times until reasonably small pieces.  At this stage add in the dessicated coconut and protein powder.   Once blended, add in the chia seeds and blitz just enough to mix in.   Tip all contents into a large bowl.   Remove zest from the 2 lemons and chop up further if you like, then squeeze in the juice of the lemons and mix into the nut mixture.  Melt the Virgin Coconut Oil and add to the nut mixture until well absorbed and holding the mixture together.  You can test this out by pressing the mix down in the bowl with a spatula and see if binds together.   If not, you may need to add a little extra Virgin Coconut Oil.

Pour mixture into a baking paper lined baking dish approx. 15 cm x 25cm x3cm.  Place in the fridge until set.   Lift out of baking dish whilst still on the baking paper, onto a flat surface and cut into either bite size pieces or into bars.   You may find that some of the mixture breaks off – don’t waste it – use it as a sprinkle over your muesli or put on top of your porridge.  Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

 

A nice wee snack with no refined sugar

Experiment a little by using different dried fruit like apricot or mango or trying different nut or seed bases.   Depending on what nut / seed base you use will change the amount of Virgin Coconut Oil you will need to get the mixture to bind together; because of their natural oil content.    You could always cut the recipe by two if you didn’t have enough ingredients.   I don’t think you can fail this recipe.

Enjoy this guilt free treat – but remember it is a treat.