Good morning!

I cannot believe it’s already Thursday.  This week has literally flown by which is quite a rare (and exciting) feeling to have.  I owe it all to my failed travel on Monday and the snowstorm on Tuesday.

New Products

Soo I recently purchased two new products to experiment with in the kitchen: almond flour and coconut flour.

These two products continue popping up all kinds of recipes, so I finally gave in and bought both while I was at a local health food store.

Two interesting things jumped out at me when I read the nutrition labels:

• Coconut flour has 12 grams of fiber in a 1/4 cup serving as compared to 1 gram in regular all-purpose flour.
• Almond flour has only 4 grams of carbs (or 1 gram net carbs) in a 1/4 cup serving as compared to 24 grams in regular all-purpose flour.

Pretty impressive!

These newbies were instantly incorporated into my cooking.  Here’s my first recipe with almond flour:

Snowball Energy Bites (No Bake)

Very loosely adapted from this recipe.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup almond flour

1 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut, divided

1/2 cup almond butter*

1/3 cup coconut butter**

1 tbls cocoa powder

1/4 cup dried cranberries

1 tsp vanilla extract

*The almond butter I used was a little bit sweet so I didn’t include any additional sweetener.  If you use unsweetened almond butter, you may want to add a bit of honey or other sweetener.

**My almond butter wasn’t very liquidy but depending on how ‘drippy’ your almond butter is, you may need to adjust the coconut butter.

Directions:

1.  Combine all ingredients (except 1/2 cup shredded coconut) and mix thoroughly.

2.  Form 1 inch balls (approximately 1 tablespoon) and put in the fridge to set for about 10 minutes.  Once the bites have firmed up a bit, roll in shredded coconut to coat the outside.

3.  Pop in your mouth for a quick energy boost!

These snowballs have been a perfect addition to stave off hunger throughout the day, especially in the mornings before a workout.  Often times I find myself a bit hungry but not enough so to sit down for a full breakfast which will likely give me a stomach ache if I work out immediately after.  This is a fantastic snack to grab to hold off until my regular breakfast.

Have you ever tried coconut or almond flour?

Tagged: Almond, Almond meal, Coconut, Flour