Healthy Snack – Cranberry Pistachio Energy Balls + Giveaway

Cranberry Pistachio Energy Balls

Happy Wednesday my Dearest Readers :) Half way through the week! I’m not sure if I’ve told you, but I work in a very technical team with all men…there’s only one other girl in my team, but she doesn’t work in the same office as me so I haven’t even met her before. Anyhow, these middle ages men are always mindlessly munching on snacks all day long… whenever I bring any goodies in…they will generally be cleared in a couple of minutes.

Recently, my two managers have decided to try and be healthy and opt for healthier snacks and one thing they love are pistachio nuts. They will take turns in buying a big pack and share it amongst themselves, and it’s very entertaining to see them fight over the last one in the pack! I didn’t realise until recently, that pistachios are a healthy snack which can help lower cholesterol and the fibre and fat content make them quite filling and hopefully you will eat less later ~

Wonderful Pistachio

I was recently sent some Wonderful Pistachios to try and was asked if I was interested in creating a recipe for them. So I took this opportunity to make some healthy pistachio snacks for my colleagues which were also portable as they have been going on for long runs at lunch time.

Will provide you with the recipe now, but don’t forget to scroll down to the end for the giveaway :)

Recipe – Cranberry and Pistachio Energy Balls adapted from Gimme Some Oven

Yield – Approximately 20 balls (Tablespoon)

Ingredients
220g (1 Cup) chopped dates
1/2 Cup honey
pince of salt
1 1/2 cup of traditional oats
1 cup unshelled pistachio nuts
1 cup dried cranberries

Notes
- Fresh dates are probably better, because they’re not as hard
– More honey may be required to help the ingredients stick together
– Make sure the dates are well chopped, as my food processor had trouble combining the honey and dates together
– I use raw pistachio, meaning they were not salted. If you use salted pistachio, you can leave the pinch of salt out
– You can add additional seeds, nuts or dried fruit if you wish to

Method
1) Place chopped dates, honey and salt into a food processor and pulse until smooth. Mixture should be slightly runny, if it is too stiff add some more honey (1 or 2 tablespoons).
2) Transfer mixture into a large bowl and the other ingredients, pistachio, oats and dried cranberries. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3) Once the mixture is cool and harder, use your hand or spoon to assist and roll them into the size you like. Place them back into the refrigerator to firm up.
When stores in an air tight container they will last up to 2 weeks.

Mr Bao tried these energy balls and gave them a thumbs up as they were quite sweet and really filling, he said he ate 2 in the afternoon and was full until it was dinner time again :) Note these are also sugar free too, as it uses honey and dates!

Now let’s move onto the giveaway!

One lucky ready will win a Wonderful Pistachio pack valued at $24, pistachios in 3 flavours, Roast & Salt, Salt & Pepper and Sweet Chilli. Otherwise, you should be able to find them at your supermarket :)

To enter this giveaway
- Leave a comment and tell me do you like salted or raw pistachios?
– For more entries please ‘Like’ me on Facebook and Follow me on Twitter ~ If you’ve already done that please let me now! Thank you!
– Giveaway ends on the 22nd October (Wednesday) 
– You may reenter daily, one entry a day
– Winners will be chosen by me personally and announced on this blog and notified via email on the 24th October (Thursday) 
– Open only to all Australian residents (Sorry International Readers!)

Daisy@Nevertoosweet received Wonderful Pistachios as a gift