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Urban Retreat Treats

Recipes for energy balls and muffins

On Friday Kristin and I hosted our 3rd Urban Retreat at The Yoga Garden Training Center. It's always such pleasure for us to offer this event .. and a chance for me to put my baking/creating/experimenting skills to the test.

This time I decided to try making some energy balls, after having the most incredible versions courtesy of Treasa on the Inismor Yoga Retreat I attended with Greg Walsh a few weeks ago. More on that amazing time later ...

Treasa is inspired by several Irish chefs, and in particular the two brothers who have created the Happy Pear restaurant in Co. Wicklow. I bought their original book in the Avoca store and am excited to try some of the recipes. Having watched the adorable video of them with their two wee daughters making energy balls, I armed up with jars of nuts and bags of cacao and goji berries, plugged in the trusty vitamix and took the task to hand!

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Cacao-Date-Cashew-Oat rolled in coconut: all amounts approximate (translation - I sort of fudged it)

1 cup pitted dates (soaked in hot water for a few minutes)

1/2 cup unsalted raw cashews

1/4 cup oats

1/4 cup cacao nibs

2 TBSP cacao powder

Big splash of vanilla

Big sprinkle of sea salt

~ 1 TBSP coconut oil

Blended together in vitamix - I added a bit of the hot water from the dates to help bind everything together. I think a food processor (Cuisinart or similar) would probably work better than the Vitamix as everything made quite a dense paste at the bottom and I had to stop/start multiple times).

Empty into a bowl, and then roll into balls and roll the ball into some unsweetened desiccated coconut. Separate on waxed paper in a sealable container and refrigerate.

I think some cinnamon would have worked well and my next try I'll explore with walnuts and or pecans.

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Lemon-Goji-Tahini-Oat-Apricot:

Zest and juice from 1/2 lemon

1/2 cup of brazil nuts

1/2 cup dried apricots (I use the soft uncultured ones from Trader Joes)

Big TBSP of Tahini

Sprinkle of salt

Handful of goji berries.

1/4 cup of oats.

As above - blend in Vitamix. Add a little water as needed to bind the mixture. Form into balls. Refrigerate

Carrot Tahini Mufins: 

No picture of mine but I followed the recipe from Smitten Kitchen you can see how they SHOULD look :) I made a small amount of the glaze and rglazed about half of the batch. Everyone really enjoyed!