Wow I can’t believe the weekend has come, and is almost gone. As I had mentioned previously, my week flew by, and so did my weekend! And I don’t like it when my weekends fly by because I always want more time to relax with my family! Today I went to a hot power flow yoga class and it was steamy and lovely. Then I met up with Scott and Skylar at Starbucks, had a soy sugar free vanilla latte and it was off to the Verizon store (don’t go to a cell phone store on weekends!) to put a new Crackberry Blackberry on order because the trackball is glitchey on the one I have. And you all know how I need my Balls to be in Prime Form. Not wobbly like the Leaning Tower of Pisa Balls
Anyway though, I have the Blackberry Curve and have service with Verizon but have always wondered if I should switch to the iPhone with AT & T. Thoughts? Do you have an iPhone? Does the touch screen ever get annoy you? The main reason I have stayed loyal to Verizon is because the service in California was much better with Verizon than AT & T but I will say, the iPhones look so cool and my iPod is just like the iPhones and I like it, but sometimes do have to bang double click on the screen for my command to register. Give me Your Thoughts on your cell phone and cell phone company, please!!!! Novels and full details appreciated in the the comments section!
So many of you tell me that you enjoy my Weekly Highlights and Review Posts. Cool!
Yesterday’s Post recapped every thing from my Vegan Peanut Butter Vanilla Balls
to Great Salads and Salad Dressing Recipes
And I recapped my Raw Vegan Feasts: Zuke Noodles and Homemade Peanut Sauce
But, it’s a new week, and you know what that means, a new recipe! Here you go:
Averie’s high Raw Vegan Dark Chocolate Cherry Balls-No Bake/Gluten/Soy-Free/10 Minute Recipe!
1/4 c Cashews or Almonds
1/2 c Dried Cherries (if you do not have dried cherries, Medjool Dates will work but you will end up with my Dark Chocolate Fudge Balls which are great, too!)
2 Tbsp Cocoa Powder (I used Hershey’s Dark)
Optional: 1-2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
Optional: 2 Tbsp Agave or Maple Syrup, Stevia to taste, lucama powder, etc. if you like sweeter treats Yields: Approximately 22 Small-ish Balls
Steps
First, grind your cashews (or almonds) into a fine powder. The finer the better.
Add the Rest of the Ingredients (Dried Cherries, vanilla extract & sweetener if you’re using it, and the Cocoa Powder) & grind again.
I took my dough wad out…
…and got jiggy making the dark balls! For some of my other Ball Jokes, go enjoy this post.
4 Vegan Ingredients: Cashews, Dried Cherries, Dark Cocoa Powder, Vanilla Extract. Do you see that little Cherry Nub sticking out of the ball? Yeah, that.
Optional Recipe Tweaks/Alterations:
Add 2 Tbsp PB2, Chocolate PB2, or Chocolate Amazing Grass to the Mixture
Add a dusting of cocoa powder, carob powder, or powdered sugar to the finished balls
Roll in Cinnamon & Sugar at the end
Roll in Cocoa, Carob, Carob Nibs at the end
Roll in shredded coconut
Add 1-2 Tbsp Molasses to the Mixture for Molasses-Spiced Dark Chocolate Cherry Balls
Add in chocolate chips, raisins or other dried fruit to the mixture
Flatten or mold into larger cookie shapes
Dehydrate or Bake for 5-7 Minutes in a 350F oven (just a guess on the oven time/temp) for more of a crunchy and less chewy ball
I did not just pop Chocolate Cherry Balls all weekend. Oh no. I ate my weight in broccoli.
This Raw Salad was kale, cauli, brock, tomatoes
and dressed with my Homemade Vegan Slaw Dressing which I never tire of lately.
Fiber? Yeah, I’m good on that. This was another broccoli-laden meal.
Kale, mixed greens, cukes, tomatoes, cauli, and brock.
With this Dressing Flooding Everything, again:
Homemade Vegan Slaw Dressing. Sweet, tangy, perfect.
And this was yet another salad of kale, mixed greens, tomatoes, carrots, cukes and my homemade Creamy Tahini Vegan”Cesar” Dressing
The Creamy Tahini dressing makes everything so rich and well, creamy in a lovely vegan non-dairy creamy kind of way!
And For Breakfast there was Oatmeal for Scott: 1/3 c dry oats, 2/3 c water, cinny & brown sugar
Garnished with banana slices and raisins
Not rocket science, but super tasty, he tells me!
For me, I am still in love with my Chocolate Brownie Protein Oats.
To answer a few Reader’s Questions regarding these…
My tip is to store the Chocolate Brownie Protein Oats in the freezer, not the fridge because it doesn’t actually freeze solid. It just gets thick and fudgy!!!!
I use Sun Warrior’s Vegan Brown Rice Protein Powder in Chocolate (Raw & Vegan)
I don’t add any water or liquids other than 2 Tbsp Agave (and the banana that’s incorporated and mushed up)
I don’t add any cocoa powder….but you could!
And I munched on lots of fruit
And of course, I munched many a ball.
Raw Vegan Dark Chocolate Cherry Balls, of course. I love the combo of chocolate and cherries. I mean, who doesn’t?! These deliver on the healthified, vegan, chocolate-covered-cherries-without-the-random-ingredients kind of way! And they are so fast! Less than 10 minutes, and you’re in Dark Chocolate Cherry munchin’ heaven!
Yoga Today is Tittibhasana (Firefly Pose)
Half the blogosphere Some of you have written me wondering what to do if you can’t lift off in any of these lifts, hoovering maneuvers, or arm balancing postures I do, i.e yesterday’s Yoga which was a floating version of Marichyasana A.
Strong core, bandhas (core locks) engaged, and just lift up and hoover!
And what I will say is that these are poses to work towards. I have been practicing yoga 10 years. Although I have not practiced every, single, day for 10 years, I have probably practiced 340 days a year, every year, for the last 10 years. Like, when I was puking my guts out for months on end with morning sickness, I took some days off.
Enter the Tip of the Day:
The physical practice of yoga is like playing the piano, learning a foreign language, running, or hiking. In the beginning, no one sits down and bangs out a Beethoven Symphony or runs a Sub 3 Hour Marathon, but if you keep practicing, stick with it, don’t give up, don’t quit, don’t get down on yourself, stay positive, then this will all come! And if it doesn’t happen for you, because this is not something your body wants to do, then that’s fine, too, because that is YOUR YOGA, your path, your reality, your situation, unique to you.
What’s your work? What is your yoga? Meaning, what is your challenge or something that you know you should stick with but that it’s hard for you? For me, it’s knowing that I need to reclaim some parts of myself back. I am a giver. I give, give, give and run myself into the ground. I need to constantly remind myself to set boundaries, be clear in my expectation of a particular situation, and not try to save, help, be a hero, be a supermom or superwife or superblogger, at the expense of taking time for myself. That is my work, my yoga, my challenge. And I am sometimes better than other times with this. What’s your work or your challenge? Are you doing better or worse with this than your were recently? Why or why not?
Stay Tuned For A Ball-Worthy Post. Based on reader’s requests, I am going to consolidate my balls. All my ball recipes, I mean…
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