My father is in hospital on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia and I am by his side every day supporting his healing – which is healing for me too. It is a wonderful time for us both. The hospital food is hit and miss with nutritional value and like airplane food, you really don’t know what you are going to get until you lift the cover!

I’ve been taking in soup to support his diabetes diet. He has a sweet tooth but needs to keep his blood sugar levels in check so I’ve made him a treat that has a relatively low insulin response in comparison to the sweet biscuits offered by the tea lady.

Inspired by Bridging Foods and Rawganics in Byron Bay, I decided to make my own version of protein energy balls.

In a large bowl mix together …

1 cup finely chopped pitted dried dates1 cup finely chopped dried apricots
1 cup LSA – linseed, sunflower and almond meal
1 cup coconut crunch – air dried coconut flesh (we used Banaban brand – if you can’t find this, use shredded or dessicated coconut instead)
1 cup dessicated coconut
1 cup macadamia or almond butter
1 heaped tablespoon cacao powder
1/2 cup runny honey
1/2 cup dessicated coconut to coat the gob stoppers 🙂

Wash your hands well and get in with your fingers to bring the ingredients together.

The consistency needs to be sticky but not too wet – you will know when you start rolling/squishing the balls in your hand whether you need more dry or wet ingredients to get the consistency right.

Roll golf ball sized gob stoppers and then roll in dessicated coconut and put in a container in the fridge to ‘set’. This quantity makes about thirty (30).

Esther and Coby took some for their afternoon break at work and Dad loves them.

Try them and let me know what other ingredients you use to create yours – dried cherries or goji berries would be yummy too … and you don’t have to use cacao … try nutmeg or cinnamon if you want!

With love, Sarah