Snickers Bliss Balls

You know I am a bliss ball lover right? If you’ve been in my world for more than a millisecond I’m pretty sure you do ;-)

I even wrote a whole recipe book dedicated to them… and it’s only £4!

Just sayin’ ;-)

Anyway, I was feeling in the mood for something munchy and sweet. Ok, basically I was procrastinating. (procrastisnacking- Is that a thing?)

Earlier I had found a bag of unopened red-skinned peanuts in my pantry and evidently they were on my mind since the idea for chocolate peanut bars was the first thing that entered. I have made a similar recipe before and formed them into bars then dipped them in chocolate BUT that was messy and took longer. This time I added cacao nibs (you could use dark choc chunks of you had some) and blitzed those in too.

Easy peasy, chocolatey, peanutty…

If you are a chocolate and peanut lover I highly recommend you give these a go this weekend!

Recipe: Snickers Bliss Balls

Ingredients:

1 cup peanuts
1 1/2 cups dates* (packed)
1/2 cup cocoa
2 tbs peanut butter - optional but good for all-round texture!
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup cacao nibs or chocolate chunks
Optional- a few drops caramel essence if you have it (I use Foodies Flavours buttery caramel!). Or use vanilla extract.

Method:

Bake the peanuts at ~180C for 5-8 mins until just golden and they smell good! - they do burn quick so be warned a d keep a close eye on them!

Meanwhile, add the dates, cocoa, peanut butter, salt and caramel/vanilla flavour to a food processor and blitz until the mix is blended down and a little sticky- you’ll likely need to add 1-3tbs water as you blitz.

*If your dates are very hard you may want to soak them first and drain them well before blitzing (you probably won’t need to extra water this way)

Once the nuts are roasted, add them (skins fine too) along with the cacao nibs and pulse through to chop/mix in well to reach desired texture.

Roll into balls or bars and chill in the fridge.

You could go one step further and drizzle or coat them in dark chocolate for a more snickers-like experience!

Note: if you are using chocolate chunks wait until the nuts are cold before you mix them through otherwise the chocolate will melt everywhere – unless that’s what you want! 😉

You could also make this recipe with other nuts of choice such as almonds or pistachios - ideally match he nut butter to the whole nut.

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Sweet potato, orange and peanut rostis

Hot salads huh!  yep, here's another one...well maybe not so much a hot salad as hot rosti topping. Delicious!!

I was inspired by Abel and Cole with this recipe, the original recipe can be found here, I tweaked it to make it gluten free and also oven baked the rostis instead of shallow frying them. They were the perfect texture with a lovely golden coat, so I really can't see how frying could have given a better burger!

This is the second time I have made these burgers and the first time round I also added an extra handful of crushed roasted peanuts as I happened to have some to hand that I'd just roasted, however I didn't have any ready roasted this time around...feel free to through a few in if you fancy!

My salad consisted of a bed of mixed leaves, rocket and cucumber, along with some clementine segments to emphasise the citrussy flavours. I drizzled a little sweet chilli sauce over the top (I admit that part is a little naughty...oops!)

This makes a great light lunch and even a pretty substantial main meal.

For more 'burger' recipes... check these out.

Recipe: Sweet potato orange and peanut rostis

Makes approx 8 rostis

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sweet potatoes

• 2 tbsp crunchy peanut butter

• 2 tbsp soy sauce

• 2 garlic cloves- crushed

• ½ tsp ground ginger (or 1 tsp fresh grated)

• ½ tsp chili flakes (more or less to taste)

• 2 tsp freshly grated orange

• A handful of fresh coriander or basil, finely chopped

• ½ cup chickpea (gram) flour (or other GF flour)

• 1 tbs chia seeds or flax meal (optional for good measure for binding!)

Method:

Peel and halve the potatoes. Plunge into lightly salted boiling water for 5 mins. Drain and cool.

Meanwhile mix the peanut butter, soy sauce, garlic, chili, ginger and zest in a large bowl.

Coarsely grate the cooled sweet potato or squash into the mix. Add the fresh herbs, chia seeds or flax (if using) and chickpea flour and fold through until well mixed. Season to taste. The mixture should be sticky but firm enough to handle. Note: add more flour if too sticky or a little water or orange juice is too dry.

Spoon small handfuls of the mix to form patties on a flour dusted parchment lined baking sheet. Lightly glaze with a little oil if desired.

Bake at 180C for approx 25 minutes until golden. Flip over after 15 minutes.

These keep well in the fridge for a few days, I imagine they would also freeze well although I haven’t tried this.

Peanut Satay Sauce Skewers

It’s still sunny and it has been all week! Today I sat outside at my dad’s house writing up some posts to schedule whilst I am away on holiday next week. However I didn’t sit out too long as it wasn’t the most comfortable bench in the world! I’m just hoping the weather holds next week for my family break in Cornwall…well as long as we have some sun I will be happy!

Anyway, time for food……….

Remember my little teaser from this post at the weekend? Well, the wait is over and if you hadn’t guessed it already this is my current favourite, simple, speedy, no-fuss, super yummy (all my favourite words)… peanut satay sauce.

Even before I became a fan of peanut butter I always loved peanut satay sauce. Particularly on chicken skewers in a Thai restaurant! But now I have my own. I can’t believe I haven’t made it before. To me it tasted pretty much like the real thing but with only 4 ingredients and 2 minutes of time. Yes this is another one of my 5 minutes recipes.

As it was such a lovely spring day last Saturday I fancied a simple light lunch but wasn’t in the mood for salad. So instead here we have simple grilled veggie skewers with a satay marinade and drizzle sauce. It was so good. The drizzle sauce is quite light in colour as it is simply a thinner version of the marinade, you could add extra soy sauce or maybe even a touch of molasses if you want extra colour and depth. I felt it was perfectly tasty enough without.

I think this may even become my new quick snack recipe alternative to veggie sticks and dips,  the whole meal took no more than 10 minutes, and you could easily add some carbs or lentils for a more substantial meal. Want more peanut recipes? Well, I would suggest giving this unusual but yummy soup a try…plus I might just have a PB&J granola recipe currently undergoing a few tests….nom nom nom.

Recipe: Peanut Satay sauce Skewers

Makes one ramekins worth (for roughly one serving of veggie skewers)

Ingredients

• 2 tbs peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)
• 1 tbs soy sauce
• 1 tbs soy milk
• Approx. ½ tsp hot sauce or chipotle pepper sauce (to taste depending on what type you use)
• Additional 1-2 tbs soy (or other) milk to thin out once the veggies have been basted in half the sauce.

Method

Mix together all the ingredients to get a fairly thick paste. Coat the veggies and feed onto skewers for grilling. Grill for up to 10 mins turning once.

Meanwhile, you should have about half the sauce remaining. Add additional soy milk until you reach a drizzle consistency. Taste and add extra soy sauce etc if required. Heat the sauce in the microwave for approx. 1 minute on 50% power (not full power as I found it burnt the sauce).

Serve along with the skewers.