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I’m trying to improve my health through diet and exercise, it's easy enough to find recipes for healthy eating, my biggest problem so far has been snacks and sweet treats…

As part of my journey to healthier living, I recently purchased Janella Purcell’s Eating for the Seasons: Cooking for Health and Happiness with the intention of introducing more wholefood options into my diet.
Janella Purcell is a Naturopath, Nutritionist, Herbalist and Iridologist, she is “passionate about good food and feeling great.”

Bliss Balls are the first recipe from this book that I have made and they have quickly become a family favourite. They satisfy the sweet craving, providing a healthier option. Although I have to admit that they are very more-ish, it’s hard to stop at just one bliss ball.

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Bliss Balls – adapted from Eating for the Seasons: Cooking for Health and Happiness – Makes 24 balls

♥ 1 cup puffed rice
♥ 1/3 cup sesame seeds
♥ 1/3 cup sunflower seeds
♥ ½ cup desiccated coconut
♥ 1 cup mixed nuts; unsalted, chopped (I used almonds, pistachios and cashews)
♥ 1 cup dried fruit
♥ ½ cup tahini
♥ ¾ cup honey
♥ Sesame seeds or coconut to coat

How to

Put the seeds and nuts in the food processor blitz until chunky. Next blitz dried fruit.
Add seeds, nuts, fruit, rice and coconut in a bowl and mix together. Put ingredients in food processor and gradually add tahini and honey. Taste the mix and adjust the sweetness to your taste.

Using wet hands roll a tablespoon of the mixture into a ball. Coat balls in sesame seeds or coconut. Store in an airtight container.

I’m so happy with the results of this recipe, I’m going to try some variations and I can’t wait to try some of the other recipes from the book!

What are your favourite healthy sweet treats or snacks? Have you heard of Janella Purcell before? Leave a comment below! 🙂

Review by Megan – creating a new me with diet & exercise!

Be well,

xoxo

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I’ve never been a three meals a day kinda girl. I love to eat when I feel like it, and this involves quite a lot of snacking and grazing throughout the day. I wouldn’t have it any other way, but there are definitely times when the snacking habit I’ve gotten into works against me! Sometimes it’s hard to say no to a bit of chocolate, or a sneaky vegan sausage roll instead of something healthier.

So! I’m always delighted when I come across new and healthy snack options that promise to help me overcome my need for chocolate and instead satisfy my sweet tooth with something more nourishing.

Enter Modern Day Hippie, the latest DIY snack range on the market proving that guilt-free treats are just a food processor away. All you need to do is blend, roll and refrigerate and a whole stack of treats will be ready for you in an hour.

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My housemate and I tried the ‘Sweet and Simple‘ flavour to start with, which contains apricots, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, agave, coconut oil and vanilla extract (all organic). As you can see in the photo above the apricots haven’t been gassed with sulphur dioxide (a preservative which helps dried apricots maintain their orange colour), this is a very positive thing health wise as sulphur dioxide, or preservative 220, isn’t good for your health.

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Dry ingredients into the blender! Unfortunately just after this, we discovered that you definitely need a food processor in order to make these balls, so we transferred the ingredients over to our new Thermomix!

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The sachet of wet ingredients before being added to the mix.

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Post-Thermomix. Note: you can still see a lot of the whole ingredients here (sesame seeds etc) I recommend processing until they are completely broken down and joined together as it tastes even better… see below.

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As you can see, the balls on the left have been processed for longer than the ones on the right and were easier and tastier to eat. We made 35 small snack balls all up and enjoyed munching on them throughout the week.

The cost for the mixes is $13 on the Modern Day Hippie online store, which I think is a great price for the number that it makes and how healthy they are! I’m going to be trying the Choc Cherry one next, can’t wait! 🙂

Do you like the look of these healthy, organic snacks?

* Products provided for consideration.

Be well,

Annette

xoxo