blog

[caption id="attachment_28843" align="aligncenter" width="225"]

Original recipe courtesy of LovelyCraftyHome.com, comments courtesy of yours truly.[/caption]

I didn’t want to do
. I poked holes at it every which way but loose, with allof my excuses:

“I travel too much.”
“I can’t live without my daily Starbucks latte.”
“I don’t have time to prep food.”
“I don’t wanna.”

But when you’re in your medium years, all of the running in the world isn’t going tofix your energy when you’re eating crap. (And yes, it’s crap. If you can’t pronounce itor it has fifteen syllables or you are convinced you created it in 10 th grade chemistry,it’s crap.)

You might even try to boost your metabolism and running by joining
Thanks, Mike. No, really. I can sweatto the oldies like any Richard Simmons devotee but if I’m eating crap, it’s to far lessbenefit.#eatcleantraindirty

It was that morning when the dress I had planned in my head to wear wouldn’t zipthat I had to try something. I’m in shape, I run, I work out, I don’t drink soda, this issomething more.

Truly, you can read all of the blogs and Pinterest boards out therediscussing Whole 30, but if you don’t read the book-you’ll have a harder time buyingin to the point of not cheating (and you can get a copy on the cheap at any usedbookstore, like our awesome one in Harrisburg, NC
).


, headache central. Probably from not drinking my daily 3 cups of coffeeand from cutting the non-approved stuff. *I will say, I started my first 7 days with aglass of water with the juice of one lemon and a few sprigs of parsley on an emptystomach, and it seemed to help.


, no problem.


, no problem. You don’t want the daily run down. There are plenty ofother hilarious people out there on the interwebz who are far more entertainingthan I! Suffice it to say that I’ve learned to cook a whole new way. It’s more funnow-knowing that what I cook is healthy, and I’m giving that to my kids andhusband whether they will Whole 30 with me or not (they won’t, but whatever. I’min charge of food when I'm in town.)

Today is
and I mean. It’s far and away the best thing I’ve ever tasted.Maybe that’s because I haven’t had sugar in 25 days, but I fed one to my 11-year oldand she loved it too (she’s the picky eater, so she’s the best gauge).

Start to finish was about 30 minutes, and that included digging the food processorout of the appliance graveyard.


:

◦ 1 cup walnuts
◦ 1/2 cup raisins
◦ 10-15 dates (pitted)
◦ 1 cup unsweetened dried coconut (I used the flakes from Trader Joe’s whicharen’t technically dried but close enough)
◦ 1 cup grated carrot (this must be about 2 carrots because I shredded 6 and it waswaaaaaay too much)
◦ 2 tsp cinnamon
◦ ¼ tsp sea salt

[caption id="attachment_28848" align="alignright" width="225"]

They even looked good in food processor state. And tasted good, too, because a good cook tastes as she goes.[/caption]

Pulse the walnuts+cinnamon+salt+raisins until the walnuts aren’t big chunks.

Add the dates (I added mine 3 at a time so I wouldn’t overdo. When it’s stickingtogether, stop adding dates). Pulse.

Add the carrot. Pulse.

Add the coconut. Pulse.

Roll ‘em up into balls and roll ‘em in the extra coconut too. My batch was 17 decent-sized ones. (I suppose you could make smaller ones but then you run the risk ofbeing whispered about as stingy.)

That’s it. No baking. No freezing or chilling or waiting (unless you want to, they dofreeze well!).

Feel free to share other recipes you’ve discovered and loved! I can honestly say thatwhen I hit day 31, I’ll want a latte but my food habits are different now and I’m notgoing backwards. If I do ever have to live in my bunker, I’ll be fine.