“my mouth’s watering just thinking about those balls”
Who could resist an homage to SNL’s priceless “Shweddy Balls” routine*?
I’m here to report that my 21-day vegan adventure was mostly successful and I owe a lot of that success to some extremely tasty balls. Though there may have been an ounce or two of cheese and one unavoidable dollop of ice cream on my journey to vegandom, I’m quite proud of my achievement and feel I’m well-equipped to continue being mostly-vegan. That is, as long as I can put my mouth around some balls when I crave decadence.
As I mentioned in this post, I owe a lot of my vegan inspiration and guidance to Alicia Silverstone and her book, The Kind Diet. The recipes she includes are tasty and satisfying and, once you’ve managed to track down (hello Whole Foods) some of the more obscure ingredients (I had never heard of Umeboshi plums before), fairly easy to incorporate into a routine.
Though dessert-like snacks probably should not become part of a routine, I have a feeling The Kind Diet‘s ”Raw Balls” (recipe found reproduced here) will be making regular appearances in (and, more frequently, out of) my freezer. I’ve already made them three times (pictured above is the batch I made last night), shared them with a number of friends and have had an equal or greater number of requests for the recipe. Who knew a combination of walnuts, almonds, dates, maple syrup, carob powder, almond butter, vanilla and coconut could make an acceptable–if not preferable–substitute for a chocolate bar. Even if my non-industrial grade food processor is now suicidal (it was smoking last night trying to mix the thick, gooey concoction), I am one hundred and seventy-three percent SOLD.
Pete Schweddy needs to add this recipe to his repertoire. We should all have the opportunity to enjoy a sackful of Raw Shweddy Balls.
*SNL “Shweddy Balls” skit transcript here.
Filed under: food, lifestyle | 4 Comments
Tags: dessert, food, recipe, snacks, vegan
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Those look delicious!!! Thank you for the recipe. I plan on taking a two-week vegan challenge (very much a meat-eater right now) and I would love to hear more about your experience.
Thanks for stopping by! You can’t go wrong with this recipe.
I was vegetarian (with the occasional piece of fish) for 5-6 years, so the vegan challenge wasn’t quite as…well…challenging for me as it might be for you. But I applaud anyone who makes the choice to reduce their consumption of animal products. Not only is it a more humane and environmentally-friendly choice, but you will feel so much more energetic almost immediately.
The vegan challenge opened my eyes to a world of dairy alternatives. Granted, you probably wouldn’t want to snack on a slice of soy cheese all by its lonesome, but jalapeno-flavoured soy cheese melted in a burrito? You’d hardly notice the difference. If anything, this sort of challenge is a chance to explore and experiment. You’d be surprised how many recipes you can modify with meat and dairy substitutes.
Good luck on your two week challenge!
these look awesome.
nice balls, kat!
They are awesome.
I don’t like to brag, but I really do have a way with balls.