Whew, I have been buzzing around like crazy since jumping out of bed this morning, kitchen cleaning, smoothie guzzling, great run followed by a Bowflex routine, and messing up the kitchen with lots of food prep for an afternoon picnic/food fest – weeeee! But I stumbled onto something perfect for today’s adventure – a picnic backpack we had stashed with plates, utensils, and plenty of cold storage.
I remember hubby buying this online years ago when we lived in Florida because it was on sale for cheap and we never used it.
Somehow, and I’m not sure how, it survived all my de-cluttering and stuff-minimizing when we moved from Florida to California. Amazing since I sold and donated over half our stuff for that move!
I’m glad it did because it’s perfect for day hikes and picnics complete with wine glasses and a wine opener!
Oh we will be getting a lot more use out of this now!
I busily threw together a huge salad to stuff into it for our dinner tonight.
Then cut into this ugly watermelon I picked up at Costco last week.
To make a fast watermelon/kiwi salad for snacking on in the hot, dry summer weather.
But what I made for dessert is the clear winner, I remixed my Hemp Seed Fudge Balls with a new ingredient – buckwheaties (soaked and dehydrated buckwheat groats).
Hemp Crunch Balls
- 2 cups shelled hemp seeds
- 3/4 cup buckwheaties
- 1 1/4 cup pitted medjool dates
- 1/4 cup cacao powder
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 1/4 tsp. salt
Place all in ingredients except dates into a food processor and process until well blended. Feed dates into the food processor and process until a dough-like texture is reached. Roll dough into 1 1/2″ balls, place in fridge for about 30 minutes to chill and enjoy! Makes about 20 balls.
The buckwheaties added a wonderful crunch to the balls making them more like raw vegan chocolate crunch candy or donut holes.
Yum, can’t wait to dive into them while enjoying the great outdoors and listening to live music.
But yikes, I gotta hit the showers and finish packing sunscreen and bug spray! Hope everyone is having a great Saturday!
JL goes Vegan says
July 9, 2011 at 4:56 pmHope it was a fabulous picnic! The crunch balls look delectable!
Averie @ Love Veggies and Yoga says
July 9, 2011 at 9:03 pmthe hemp crunchies look awesome
between those and your other hemp balls, i am going to make these one of these days!
“Amazing since I sold and donated over half our stuff for that move!”–OMG i have come across a few things in my most current move that I am shocked i still have from all of our previous moves..and a few things have come in handy. Imagine that. Saving something and it working out to be functional. 95% of the stuff i save tho is just….more clutter!
Madeline - Greens and Jeans says
July 10, 2011 at 4:45 amPicnics are key this time of year! I love the wine glasses!
kalli says
July 10, 2011 at 7:02 amhope you had a great picnic-love that backpack-how fun! and i must make these balls asap. i think i will finally try hemp seeds!