April 11...Rocket Fuel...just got to keep it together first!

Need fuel fast or on the go, then try these tasty little treats!  These little mountains of goodness are called "Rocket Fuel" and for good reason.  Each nut is nutritionally dense and each contains unsaturated fatty acids.  People who eat nuts as part of a heart-healthy diet can lower the LDL, low-density lipoprotein or "bad," cholesterol level in their blood. High LDL is one of the primary causes of heart disease. Eating nuts reduces your risk of developing blood clots that can cause a fatal heart attack. Nuts also improve the health of the lining of your arteries.  Just one caution, nuts pack alot of calories so be sure to portion out your servings!

Here's what you'll need, nuts...you choose whatever you like.  I have almonds, pecans and hazelnuts.  Cinnamon, egg whites and coconut oil to grease your cook sheets.

You can chop your nuts by hand, or I'm using my mini food processor, thanks Mom, which chops them up perfectly.  Be careful not to over do it as you could end up with a nut powder!  You'll need 1 cup of chopped pecans, 1/2 cup of almonds and 1/2 cup hazel nuts... 

Then you'll need 5 dates chopped finely...here's where I ran into trouble, the more I tried to chop up the dates the more they mashed together...

In a separate bowl mix well,  2 egg whites and 1 tbsp cinnamon.  Pour this mixture over the nuts and dates and mix together.  Your suppose to scoop mixture into your hands and roll it together like the size of a golf ball and place on greased cookie sheet...

Above is what I ended up with, the mixture did not stick together very well at all.  At one point I thought I would have to make this into a granola.  Place in oven for 15 mins. at 350 degree.  I continued to try to mush some pieces together to somewhat resemble a golf ball!

So I decided to add some honey, about 1 tbsp, mix it up and that was still not enough, so I added one more tbsp of honey and was able to stick the mixture of nuts together...

 Here are my "nut-balls" that look like a cookie gone bad!

After all was said and done, these tasted amazing and I could of eaten the whole tray easy.  The morning Boot Camp class gave them the thumbs up and so did my son.  My only issue with this recipe is to figure out how to get them to stick together better with out adding a lot more calories...I will try another batch and put the dates in the food processor to really mince them up...might have to add a couple more dates as well...stay tuned.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: I got about 22 pieces out of this recipe, in total the calories are 2010, not counting the honey, divide by 22 pieces and you have about 91 calories per cookie, enjoy...wisely!