Clean Eating Macaroons - Raw Vegan Gluten-Free

I'd like to dedicate this post to all of the people out there who are struggling with a sweet tooth or two. I wholeheartedly feel for you.

While I was living in New York, I found the most amazing macaroon cafe. I walked inside, completely in awe of all of the macaroons, struggled to choose between the amazing colors and flavors, chose two (because how could I choose just one?), took a bite. Just like that, I was hooked.

Unfortunately I forgot the name of the place, hence I could never return. The cafe was forever lost in an array of adorable shops somewhere on the west side. Sorry to dampen your mood with the sad ending.

The point is, I've loved macaroons ever since. Allow me to introduce to you raw vegan gluten-free macaroons #cleaneating #plantbased #lifestyle. Ya feel?

These beauties will have even the biggest sweet teeth of all (I'm talking sweet molars and wisdom teeth) satisfied. Think white chocolatey coconut goodness.

Clean Eating Macaroons:

Ingredients:

~ Raw almonds - 1 cup

~ Shredded coconut - 1 cup

~ Vanilla - 1/4 cup

~ Coconut oil - 3 tbsp

~ Maple syrup OR raw honey - 3 tbsp

~ Salt - 2 pinches

Instructions:

1. In your food processor, blend all of the ingredients together. The end result should look well blended with small bits of almonds mixed in.

2. With your hands, roll bite-sized balls and place on a cookie sheet. I pressed lightly on the tops of each macaroon to flatten them a little bit. This is just for looks and is entirely unnecessary.

3. Rinse or lick your fingers because they will be pretty messy at this point.

4. Place in freezer until firm.

*I should mention that macarons are actually the delightful french pastries that come in an array of pretty colors and have a fluffy texture, similar to biting into a cloud that came straight from heavens. Macaroons are the coconut goodness for which I have given a recipe above. This is if you want to get really specific, but for the sake of this post, they're both going under the same category. To-may-to, to-mah-to.

Photo via Pastry Gene

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Orange Cranberry Coconut Bites

I am a big fan of making bite sized snacks like this because they're easy and require minimum work. All you have to do is put the ingredients in your blender and the machine does the rest. The most exciting part (in my opinion) is that although they are raw, they don't need to be frozen! It's nice to have a treat every once in a while that isn't freezing cold. Otherwise I would eat banana ice cream every day!

These little guys are soft to the touch and refreshingly zesty. Eat up!

Orange Cranberry Coconut Bites

Ingredients:

~ Dates - 1 cup

~ Unsweetened desiccated coconut - 1/2 cup + 1/4 cup for rolling

~ Orange juice - 1/4 cup

~ Dried cranberries - 1/4 cup

Instructions:

1. Blend the dates in your food processor until they are finally chopped.

2. Add the coconut and blend until just combined.

3. Add the orange juice and cranberries. Blend until well combined.

5. Roll into bite sized balls and cover in the remaining coconut.

6. Munch munch, chomp chomp.

Refrigerate these little guys if you aren't planning on eating them all at once. These keeps them more firm - plus there's some OJ in there so let's keep it fre$h.

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