Raw Donut Holes....Yummo!!!

Check out this beauty!!!  I came across this delicious recipe and decided to make these incredibly delicious, wonderfully nutritious, and extremely filling goodie.  You can see a You tube video of the entire process here!

The ingredients consist of Medijool dates for the base, 1 cup of raw (soaked and dried) almonds, 1 vanilla bean (scraped), 1 cup of dried pineapple, and 5 T of coconut.  You basically put all the ingredients into a bowl, mash it all around like crazy (the dates are really ooey gooey and come apart and will hold everything together) and then make individual balls.  Then roll the balls in the left over part of the coconut.  Then pop one in your mouth!

The day I made these I ended up probably eating 3 of these and was not hungry again for 4 hours.  I kept expecting to find myself getting hungry, but I wasn't.  They are very rich and filling.

Also...I love all the awesome properties of the ingredients in this recipe....

Pineapples -  This delightful tropical fruit is high in the enzyme bromelain and the antioxidant vitamin C, both of which plays a major role in the body's healing process.  Bromelain is a natural anti-inflammatory that has many health benefits and encourages healing. It is very effective in treating bruises, sprains and strains by reducing swelling, tenderness and pain. This powerful anti-inflammatory effect can also help relieve rheumatoid arthritis symptoms and reduce postoperative swelling. Additionally, the bromelain contained in fresh pineapple can relieve indigestion. This enzyme helps break down the amino acid bonds in proteins, which promotes good digestion.

Pineapples provide an ample supply of vitamin C too, a commonly known antioxidant that protects the body from free radical damage and boosts the immune system. Vitamin C helps build and repair bodily tissue and promotes wound healing. The body uses vitamin C to help metabolize fats and cholesterol, absorb iron, and synthesize amino acids and collagen. Collagen is one of the primary building blocks of skin, cartilage and bones. Vitamin C also decreases the severity of colds and infections.

Medjool Dates -  These dates provide fiber, potassium, and magnesium nutrients that defend us from heart disease and cancer. Evidence shows that eating fiber-rich foods reduces our risk of colon, rectum, and breast cancers. Soluble fibers have been linked to low blood cholesterol levels and scientists believe they may help lower blood pressure and stabilize blood sugar. Four medjool dates provide 570 milligrams of stroke-reducing Potassium and 10% of the U.S. RDA of essential Magnesium. 

Almonds - Their nutritive value as well as functional importance in keeping the human body supple, beautiful and healthy, is unsurpassed in the nut kingdom. Nearly cholesterol free and abundant in high quality, highly absorbable protein, almonds provide almost no useless material to the body. Their high monosaturated fats (that fight bad cholesterol) and dietary fiber content make them easy to digest, provides heat in the body and also ensure no excess oils, like the peanut. Alpha-tocopherol, which is a major source of Vitamin E, makes almonds almost the elixir for healthy hair and skin. Indeed, most traditional cultures use almond oil for rich, healthy hair and a flawless, wrinkle free skin. In many countries in the Middle East and even India and China, almond oil is a part of the medicine cabinet as well as the beauty cabinet of every home. Such is the invaluable contribution that this ubiquitous little seed has to the realm of beauty and healthcare.  In addition, almonds provide almost all the nutrients that help increase bone mineral density, making a strong skeletal system, needed by athletes, growing, pre-pubescent children and of course, elderly people. It can, hence fight the onslaught of osteoporosis in the elderly. In the not so elderly, where a good life piles on its evidences in the various regions of the body, almonds have been known to drastically reduce the effects of cholesterol. The monounsaturated fats help maintain healthy levels of HDL Cholesterol while reducing total and LKDL cholesterol. The heart can now breathe a sigh of relief. This effect can show results with quantities as little as an ounce a day!