Tropical Bites Beat Donuts

What do you do when they ask you to bring donuts to a meeting?  Bring donuts, right?  Nope. At least, I didn't : )
I've made these instead. They're relatively quick, easy, have only a few ingredients, and everyone will love them…Not to mention the added benefit of nutrients in them.
These fiber-rich balls are high in minerals and you might even get some bromelain out of them. Bromelain, which is an enzyme found in pineapple, may help digest proteins and even have anti-inflammatory characteristics. Oh, and the nuts are rich in unsaturated fats, the kind that's good for you ;) and cashews happen to score 100 in the amino acid department, meaning that they're a very good source of and close to being a complete protein!  It's almost too much to get from a sweet snack, isn't it!?!

So, if you have a get-together to go to tomorrow, might as well pull out the following from your pantry and get to work or rather, dance in the kitchen while creating these tropical, magical bites!

Why did I choose to use pineapple? That's what I happened to have on hand and it was the main ingredient I wanted to work around. Use may whatever dried fruit you have for an alternative, maybe not tropical, but other fruity snacks. Dried cherries make a wonderful dessert too.

Tropical Bites

Ingredients:

1/2 cup almonds

1/2 cup cashews

pinch of ground vanilla

pinch of salt

10 medjool dates

1 cup dried pineapple 

3 tbsp coconut flakes

shredded coconut, or other preferred ingredient, for rolling

Preparation:
1. Grind the nuts in a food processor until they're coarsely chopped
2. Chop the pineapple chunks and the dates into small bits if they're large pieces and/or on the dry side and add to the nut "meal" along with the rest of the ingredients
3. Process the ingredients until there are no large chunks of anything remaining but don't overdo it
4. Using your palms, roll spoonfuls of the dough into balls and then roll them into shredded coconut or   something else you prefer.

Share and enjoy!

They would keep at room temperature but I predict there will be none left to store! : )