Chocolate Bee Pollen Bites

Bees are incredible creatures.  Not to be confused with nasty wasps (I hate those guys!), bees are wonderful creatures that are essential to our existence.  Bees are responsible for 80% of pollination. 80%!  Pretty much if you're eating fruit or veggies, you have bees to thank.  So, thank you bees.  I'll still run away screaming if you come near me, but thanks.

Bees also create honey(duh)-which is an amazing superfood.  It's antiseptic(reduces possibility of infection) and antibacterial(kills bacteria) among many other amazing properties. Healing yourself naturally never tasted so good! So it was no surprise to find out that there is yet another reason to love bees.

Bee pollen. Bee pollen is my new obsession.  It is SO good for you.  I should say that if you have intense seasonal allergies you should probably test out a little before diving right in-just to be safe.  But for the most part, bee pollen is crazy good for you.  It's the most complete food found in nature and can increase energy and stamina.  Sound intriguing?  I know! Check out this article  for all the important blah blah blah.

I'm trying to find ways to fit it into my food everywhere!  You can't cook it(well you shouldn't), so there goes a bunch of recipes. You can put it on whole grain toast with some nut butter...I usually whirl it into my morning smoothies, along with chia seeds, kefir, flax seed oil and some greens.  Talk about energy!

I wanted to find another way to weave this powerhouse into my day.  Protein bars/balls are a great way to keep things raw and are a perfect pick-me-up in the afternoon.  Here is my recipe for delicious chocolate bee pollen bites!  They can be made into bars or balls, but I was lazy and made a big tray of them.  Like most of my recipes, it's easy to throw together.  I don't like anything with too many steps because I'll most likely have to stop what I'm doing to change a diaper, clean a spill or unstick someone's something-or-other off of someone's else's thingamajig.  It happens.

Ingredients:
2 cups walnuts

3/4 cup cocoa

Heaping tablespoon bee pollen + more for dusting

2 1/2 cups pitted dates

1/4 tsp Himalayan pink sea salt

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1/2 cup hemp seeds

This is a very forgiving recipe.  If you don't have that many walnuts, replace with pecans.  If you don't have sunflower seeds, use chopped almonds. If you don't have Himalayan pink sea salt, well, shame on you. Kidding. Yada yada yada, you get the idea.

Using a food processor (oh yes-you need a food processor), grind up the walnuts until they are really crumbly.

I clearly forgot to do step one before adding the rest of the ingredients in this next picture. They turned out fine. Add cocoa, bee pollen and salt. Grind it up until blended! While the machine is running, I added the dates one at a time.  Then I could monitor the stickiness.  Once it gets to a point where it sticks together in your hands, it's good. Turn the machine off before testing...I feel like I should mention that.  You can use a few more or less dates but I found this amount worked well.

I mixed all that in with some sunflower seeds and hemp seeds for some crunch.  You could add chia here or flax or nothing, whatever you have on hand!

I smushed it into a 7 x 11 pan and pressed down really hard.  Left it in the freezer for about 20-30 minutes to let it really set up and voila!  Cut it into bars and it was great all week!  This recipe is really good to freeze too so you can wrap half and leave it in the freezer if you're not going to eat it...but man, everyone in my family LOVED these. They do NOT taste like brownies. My kids made that very clear, but they still inhaled them.

Let me know what you think!  They're chocolatey, sweet and packed with energy.  And with no added sugars-these are a great snack for adults and kids. Enjoy!