Nut Butter Cookie Dough Bites

“It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.”

— David Steindl-Rast

Good Morning! Happy Weekend!

I will be totally transparent here: this recipe was an ALMOST fail that turned into a BIG win! I had this brilliant idea of making these yummy raw cookie dough bars with a coffee filled crust, but somehow it just did. not. work. I made the “crust,” if you will, a few times, and truly loved it! Coffee, cocoa, almond butter, dates, oh my it was truly lovely! And then, once I layered the following cookie dough recipe on top of it, it just fell flat to me! So, as I sat eating this cookie dough, being totally bummed out, I realized that THIS was the recipe I had to share!! An egg-free (well actually vegan and raw…) nut butter cookie dough!

Is it good as a snack on its own? Yep. Is it ideal for a late-night dessert? Duh. IS IT A PERFECT SMOOTHIE TOPPER?!? Oh, hell yes. That’s when I knew that I had created something so beautiful and delicious: when I threw a bunch of these on top of my morning green smoothie and the flavors were so in sync—wow totally in a dream world with that thought…

I’m truly loving these nap time sweet treats! Even though Oliver can just about sit up on his own in his highchair, I don’t want to spend hours with him just sitting there watching me throw ingredients in a bowl and mutter to myself just yet! But, let me tell you, once this boy can eat and can understand what I’m doing in the kitchen, he will totally be plopped there while I not-so-gracefully run around trying to cook/bake something new (him trying everything, of course!). ANYWHO! The failed first recipe took me probably about an hour. And then, my sad-girl turned ecstatic-girl dough recipe only took half the amount of time! Boom. Another one. Do people still quote DJ Khalid? Is that so 2016?

Overall, we can say that I am pretty dang jazzed. I love putting granola on top of my smoothies but doesn’t everyone?! So, let’s really get wild here in 2020 and put COOKIE DOUGH on them things. Like, SAFE cookie dough. I eat as much eggy cookie dough as the next person, but I suppose I should be slightly more careful now with our little dude (even though he will totally get sneaky bites of it!). I would even argue that this cookie dough is relatively healthy! There ain’t much in these bites, and a nice chocolate chip in the morning on top of a beautifully greens filled smoothie is truly what we all need these days!

ingredients

Nut butter—9.5 oz, or 1 C

Coconut Sugar—8 oz, or 1 ½ C

Vanilla Extract—1 tsp

Milk—4 oz, or ½ C

Coconut Flour—8 oz, or 1 C

Salt—1 tsp

Maca Powder (optional)—2 tsp

Chocolate Chips—7 oz, or 1 C

process

In the bowl of your mixer, cream together the nut butter and sugar until smooth.

Add in the vanilla extract and milk, mix until combined.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt and maca powder.

Slowly pour this into the mixer, making sure to scrape down the sides.

Add in chocolate chips.

Spread cookie dough out evenly onto a baking sheet or a dish so that it is easier to cut into chunks once it has firmed in the fridge.

Allow to sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Once the dough has firmed up, cut it into small chunks/cubes.

Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator.

This is great as a healthy treat, to top on your smoothies, ice cream, etc.!

Bon Appétit!

Raw Chocolate Coconut Slice

“Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.”

— Max Ehrmann

Raw. Vegan. Gluten Free. Chocolate. Slice.

I am like that bad partner who comes and goes as they please, throws a lot of nice stuff your way, then leaves again. I’m hoping that y’all will keep coming back for more, but maybe you won’t. Let’s hope I can shape up and be that girlfriend you love and miss so much!

Okay, now that you know how I’m feeling and that I’m truly working on this relationship, let’s get into it. Happy New Year! 2019! Yeah! Funny thing about me—I have this weird tick when it comes to numbers. Volume on the radio has to be at certain numbers, same with the tv. If I’m running, I can’t just stop my Garmin on any number, there are specific ones I like…so yes, I’ll keep going if I’m not comfortable with the number. Same goes with times of doing things, and here we are at 2019. NINETEEN is not a number I love. Nope, don’t love 1, don’t love 9, certainly am not a fan of 1-9! I like 20, but eh that 19 really is messing with me.

That being said, I think this year is going to be gooooddd. That self care has already started to kick in, mentally and physically I’m stronger, I’m quite a bit less stressed than usual (don’t get me wrong, I am still a stressed out lil lady, but we’re improving!), and I’m even finding my work to be chill sometimes. Like enjoying it. Minus the fact that Atlanta is now cold (eye roll) for the next month, I am oh so content! Did I mention that my rough and tough New England body can’t even handle the chilly mornings that are below 35˚?! I’ve turned soft.

This has turned silly and not even a life update, not even a recipe talk, just a cool ol’ Kitkat ramble!

Okay. This recipe.

I worked on it for a MINUTE. Like, woof, over a month on this bad boy and I love it so much. The whole dairy free life has really sparked creativity in me. Also, just the fact that I now am more in tune with my digestion, I know what to eat and avoid, how to eat certain things to make my tummy less gurgly, too. Listen. To. Your. Body. Yeah, Sarah’s Day reference, get at me!

The base of this raw/vegan/gf slice is dreamy. I would just snack on it alone. OH! Idea! Let’s make it into a granola-type next time. Taking note now.The blend of nuts and seeds with a touch of sweetness from the dates, mmmm yes. And a hint of peppermint, really just calms and soothes you. Oh, and cacao powder. Toasted coconut. Duh. What a lovely match!

Next is the MOOSE. Mousse. You can’t even taste the bananas. Blew my mind when I threw this together! I wanted a creamy, smooth, luxurious mousse, and ya girl has come out on top! It’s so smooth. Like body butter smooth. YUM. And to me, it’s a spoonful of health! Or like…healthier. And sprinkle the top with basically a blizzard of toasted coconut, you got yourself a ZERT!

Here you have it, my first pride and joy of 2019. Tummy ache free, delicious, has the goods, has the seeds, has the cacao, has the oils, has it ALL! It’s also been slowly enjoyed by my roommate and I this week… so I’d say the number 19 isn’t all that bad if it’s going to start like this!

base ingredients

Almonds—5 oz, or ¾ C

Pepitas—2 TBL

Dates—4

Toasted Coconut—1 oz, or 2/3 C

Chia Seeds—1 TBL

Maca powder—1 tsp

Flax Meal—1 TBL

Vanilla Powder—1 tsp

Pink Sea Salt—1 tsp

Cacao Powder—2 TBL

Coconut Oil—1.5 oz, or 3 TBL

Peppermint Extract—¼ tsp

process

Combine all of the ingredients in your blender or food processor and pulse until all ground and combined.

If you are having a tough time, add in a Tablespoon of coconut milk.

Press this into the bottom of a tart pan. You can also use a pie dish, cake pan, whatever you have that works best! The tart pan is nice because you can remove the sides.

Put in the freezer while you prep the mousse.

mousse ingredients

Banana—2

Coconut Milk—2 TBL

Coconut Oil—2 TBL

Cacao Powder—1.75 oz, or ½ C

Peppermint Extract—¾ tsp

Dark Chocolate—2 oz

Toasted Coconut—1 oz, or 2/3 C

process

In the same blender or food processor (don’t even think to clean it!), combine all of the ingredients except the toasted coconut.

Pulse until nice and smooth. You may add a splash more coconut milk if needed!

Spread this evenly over the base.

Cover with the remainder of the toasted coconut and freeze.

You may also put this in the fridge, but I prefer the ‘icebox’ bar better.

When ready to eat, remove from the freezer, slice a nice thick piece and enjoy!

Bon Appétit!

Peanut Butter Cups

"Be softer with you. You are a breathing thing, a memory to someone, a home to a life." - Nayyirah Waheed

Continue reading if healthy dessert to change your life sparks your interest, or your tummy. I mean, that's what's up!

I don't think that I have ever been so patient and thorough with something in my life! I mean, is that so surprising? I'm rather stubborn and impatient with everything I do, because things obviously have to happen now or it's never going to get done! In all of my self love and kindness I've been practicing as of lately, patience is still something I can't seem to get a grasp on. While I'm very aware that most things, recipes included, will take many attempts, trial and errors, test batches, until you're 99% satisfied with it (because, I mean, we can always improve, right?!), I always want the first try to be perfect, no matter what it is!

Take my running for example. When I signed up for my first marathon, I was 100% sure that I could qualify for Boston because I could keep that pace for 10 miles, so why not 26.2? HAH yeah Katie, joke is on you. It's going to take some damn work! Heck, even when I'm doing any type of cross-training work, at the end I'm always like Hey, why don't I have ripped arms and a 6 pack? ... seriously, Katie, patience. The same goes for just about everything with me. You could throw me in a boxing ring, hand me a book in another language, ask me to plant an entire vegetable garden, and I'll almost always feel the urge to get it correct on the first try. What happens when I don't? I give up for a few days, then say some nice things to myself and go back to it, humbled a bit and feeling renewed.

One would think that after doing this on repeat - like Drake's Nice For What has been on for about 5 days - I would finally learn, but hey, go figure that self compassion takes a minute! That is your lesson for the day: be kind to yourself, have a bit of patience, don't be so damn judgmental with every little, or big, thing you do that isn't perfect. If I was perfect all of the time, didn't trip over myself, spill food and drinks constantly, never ever chaffed when I ran, always remembered to put on deodorant... then I think that would be a bit dull! Mistakes are good, they're learning experiences, they help shape you, figure out your strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, make you human! 

SO. After that, what I'm trying to say is that these raw peanut butter cups are my little patience victory! I tested out 4+ recipes, I ate 4+ recipes...that's a lot of nuts in a weeks time! After lots of tiny tweaks, these are near perfect. Honestly, I even count these as a healthy snack. The base is very granola bar-esque: lots of nuts, lots of seeds, spices, a touch of sugar - I'd eat that all on its own! The filling, just nut butter + coconut sugar + coconut water = YES PLEASE! And a drizzle of chocolate on the top. Yum. This satisfies your sweet and salty cravings without a doubt. I like using pink Himalayan salt, the bigger chunks, and just breaking it down slightly in the food processor. This allows for you to get some rather salty bites, but with a sweeter filling, it's exactly what is needed! I love to keep these in the freezer, makes it more dessert-like to me! Also, it's beginning to get hot AF in this beautiful southern part of the country, so I'll take everything on ice!

Two raw desserts in a row? I know, weird, right?! As I'm learning more about my body and the things it just cannot digest anymore I'm slowly starting to learn what actually makes me feel amazing! Sure, a Reese's PB Cup is incredible, having 1, 2, or 8 won't kill me if it's not every day, but how about I recreate it to be nutrient packed, healthy and still have the same flavors? Girl, I do not see ANY harm in this, especially if my husband eats them two at a time!

base ingredients

Almonds—½ cup

Cashews—¾ cup

Hemp seeds—2 TBL

Chia Seeds—1 TBL

Cinnamon—1 ½ TBL

Coconut Sugar—1 ½ TBL

Maca Powder—½ tsp

Collagen Powder—1 scoop

Pink Sea Salt—½ tsp

filling ingredients

Nut Butter—2/3 Cup

Coconut Sugar—1 ½ TBL

Coconut Water—¼ Cup

topping ingredients

Chocolate—3 oz, or 1 bar

Coconut Oil—1 tsp

process

In your food processor, pulse together all of your base ingredients.

Feel the mixture to make sure that when you press together with your fingers it holds, but that it isn’t so wet that liquid is dripping.

Press into the bottom of a muffin pan, spring-form pan or whatever pan works best for you! I have found the putting these into a muffin pan works best for a little bit of portion control…

Freeze for ~1 hour.

For the filling, again, add all of the filling ingredients into the food processor. Pulse until combined.

Always taste this part before adding on top of your base. If you are using a simple nut butter that has very minimal ingredients, including sugar, you may want to add in a teaspoon+ more of the coconut sugar. Also, depending on how thick your nut butter is when you first start, you might want to add in more coconut water. The goal here is to have the filling be a bit looser/creamier so when you freeze it, it is not difficult to bite into.

Pour on top of your base, spread evenly—if you have used the muffin pan, start with 1½ teaspoons of the filling for each, then distribute whatever is left evenly at the end.

Freeze ~1 hour.

For the topping, melt the chocolate and coconut oil over a double boiler.

Once completely melted and combined, drizzle over your peanut butter cups. If you have made this in a full pan instead of the muffin pan, just pour all of the chocolate over the filling, spread to cover evenly.

Freeze ~1 hour.

Pop out, cut and enjoy!

Yield: 1 dozen

Bon Appétit!

Raw Protein Bites & Life Update

As we listen deeper to our bodies and elevate our health as a value in our lives, we walk the Earth attuned, resilient and nourished.

As it may be obvious, I have taken a bit of time off from the wonderful world of KBB. Since my last post in December...yes, it's been about 5 months, damn!...I've been oddly busy. Between training for my second marathon (woo 23 minute PR!), exploring our new little neighborhood, finding my husband the perfect bicycle, getting into a new workout routine and finally taking care of my cranky, stubborn body, this website has been forgotten about.

From December all the way to the marathon in late March, that training was consuming me in every single way. It's true that yes, this training cycle was SO much healthier: not restricting my body when it needed food, not staying out way too late on nights when I had a 20 mile run the next morning, getting in stretching, strength training...honestly, there's no way that it could have been better! Even had an incredible running support group, Sugar Runs men and women! It also opened my eyes up to all of the foods that my body rejects that I've been forcing it to deal with for years! The "down" side to marathon training? I'm tired, don't want to do more activity than is assigned, I put my runs first, and I find it acceptable to eat heaps of nuts...like by the handfuls.

It's no secret that I love pushing my body to the limit, like let's get my heart rate way up, run for hours, lift heavier than I'm used to — being in constant competition with myself (fitness-wise) is so much fun for me. But, since coming off of a difficult race — if you even think about doing the Georgia Publix Marathon in Atlanta, be kind to yourself and TRAIN. ON. HILLS. What race has steep rolling hills for the last 6-8 miles?!!? Yeah. I have warned you! — I've decided to take a step back and get my mental health back up. Am I running a half in June? A 10k in July? Why, yes I am! But including yoga, more meditation, oodles of strength training and slightly kinder words to myself during my runs has been such a positive change the past 3-4 weeks.

So, as my fallen toenails are finally growing back and my blisters are healing, I'll be taking a slightly different approach to my day-to-day! Am I still going to be obsessed with running? Still going to push myself a couple of days per week? Hell yeah, who would I be without it?! But I'm also going to become equally as in love with slowing things down, which, if you know me, sitting still is rather difficult unless I'm asleep.

To start in on this new little journey, I want to share one of the yummiest things to come out of this kitchen of ours — like, it tastes so rich it's got to be bad, but girl, it's NOT! I've jumped on the protein ball/raw snack train, and mmm mmm mmm, I'm not getting off. Ever. While the top 4-5 ingredients are a must-have for a delicious base, the rest are all optional add-ins, but I highly recommend! These raw balls have been such an incredible addition to my morning, whether in smoothies, my afternoon sweets craving, something I can quickly eat while at the bakery where I'm surrounded by a million croissants, all buttery and soft and flaky and screaming my name...

...Anyways, as you can tell, it's a healthy and filling alternative to many snacks that I would tend to grab otherwise! And, if you can stay focused for an entire 10 minutes (unlike me), you'll have these raw snack balls faster than it'll take you to drive to your local bakery, purchase 5+ pastries, and eat them all in your car — absolutely no shaming if you do that sometimes, too!

So, please enjoy this recipe below, and as for the future of KBB? I will be adding in some more lifestyle pieces, some healthier dessert ideas, and, as always, weekly doses of our adorable dog, Raleigh, as I want this to be a place of comfort. Where if you're having some rather unpleasant nights after eating too much cheese and ice-cream, you can bet I'm in the same boat and will share all of those tips and tricks! 

ingredients

Dates—2 cups, pitted and soaked

Collagen or Protein Powder—4 servings

Cacao Powder—1 cup

Almond Meal—3 cups

Coconut Oil—2 tsp

Honey—¾ cup

Cinnamon—1 TBL

Pink Sea Salt—1 tsp

Maca Powder—1tsp

Chia Seeds—1 TBL

Flaxseeds—1 TBL

Cacao Nibs—2 TBL

Almonds—¼ cup

process

Place your pitted dates into a heatproof cup; pour boiling water over them until covered to soften, about 5 minutes.

While the dates are soaking, put the collagen or protein, cacao powder and coconut oil into your blender or food processor. Add in the soaked dates + 2-3 TBL of the date water. Make sure to save the water, as you may need to add more later on!

Add in the almond meal (or any nut flour you prefer), honey, cinnamon, salt, maca, chia seeds, flaxseeds, cacao nibs and almonds.

Blend.

At this point, you can taste for flavor and consistency. If it is too dry, add in another tablespoon of the date water. Too wet? Add in more flour. Not feeling the taste? Some honey will sweeten it up, some cinnamon will add a bit of a kick—you choose!

Once they are at their perfect consistency, which is slightly sticky, but not too much that you can’t roll them, roll into about 2” balls.

Then roll all of your little bites in some coconut—can be unsweetened or sweetened, definitely preference—or no coconut at all!

Place in a sealed container in the fridge, and enjoy for a perfect pre workout snack, with a smoothie, an afternoon pick me up!

Makes: ~25 balls

Bon Appétit!