At Church Street, we’re a little obsessed with quirky diets. Watch Sri closely, and you’ll see him lugging a thermos of beet/kale juice around the store. Carrie refuses to eat cane sugar, and both she and Josh are vegetarians. And Michelle watches her sugar intake carefully in order to manage her Diabetes. But now Cal’s trumping us all — he’s about to embark on an eight-week detox when he’ll avoid gluten, dairy and sugar.
In a show of support, the rest of us have started the Healthy Snacks Club — sort of a co-op where we all bring good, allergen and irritant-free stacks to share with our co-workers. Since we’ll be relying heavily on our arsonal of cookbooks to find recipes, we thought it’d be nice to update you once a week with the best recipes and cookbooks that we find. And, to keep it interesting, we’ll also be giving cookbooks away. For the first ten weeks (starting next week), just comment on one of our Healthy Snacks Club posts for your chance to win a free cookbook.
First things first, though: the food. I got this recipe from Alicia Silverstone’s Kind Diet cookbook, which I actually cook from a lot. She gets a little preachy, and she has some weirdo recipes, but she includes a lot of solid, healthy ideas too. Alicia calls these Raw Balls, but I think that sounds gross, so I changed the name to Alabama Snowballs. (If you’ve seen a snowman made in the South, you’ll know why — the snowballs are caked with dirt because there’s not enough snowfall to roll them correctly. They kind of look like these snacks.)
Anyway, these little refrigerated treats are really tasty. They’re filling because they’re packed with nuts and dates. They’re dairy and cane sugar free, and they’re gluten-free as long as you’re careful about buying gluten-free versions of the ingredients. Plus, since they’re eaten directly from the freezer, you can make a bunch at once and have them available whenever you need something sweet. And my favorite part — they’re excellent with a cup of coffee.
Carrie Rollwagen is co-owner and book buyer at Church Street Coffee & Books.