Balls!!!

I'm officially obsessed! Since Tuesday's kitchen fail/success, I've been obsessed with sprouted lentil balls and have been having them as the protein in my salad every night. When I ran out yesterday, I figured I'd just treat myself to making socca the right way again. However, when I found myself in front of the Vitamix to make the socca batter, I had a change of heart and opted for making sprouted falafel balls instead.

(having a phone camera is making me way too lazy to take legit pictures)

Rather than going through the whole process of making my own chickpea flour again, I just sprouted my chickpeas and then put about 2 cups of them into the Vitamix with a few slices of yellow onion, a clove a garlic, a few tablespoons of water, sea salt, a handful of parsley, a teaspoon of cumin, and blended away. Because I knew there was no use to attempt to shape them into balls yet (because they just break down in the pan), I just threw the whole mush into the pan until the bottom was well browned, then tried to flip it a couple times so the water would escape and it turns into a more doughy paste. Only after I let it cool down for a bit did I shape them into balls, and served them over raw zucchini pasta with tomatoes, sundried tomato pieces, and some other veggies. It's fun to purposefully mess up recipes! And while none of those instructions are very clear, it's only because the whole process kind of involves just going with it and accepting that I'm making a yummy mess based on a failed cooking method! (Once again proving how much one forgets to cook when they eat almost exclusively raw... I did mention how I forgot to turn on the oven when baking cookies for a potluck a few months ago, right?)

In other news, today felt like one of the first days of spring here in Ottawa! While I know that this may just be Nature's way of giving us a fake taste of warmth before we plunge back into another couple weeks of winter, I was able to walk back from the gym in shorts today and that was fantastic. It's also made us super psyched to start planning our garden this year, which I may just add a tab for on the blog so those who are interested in organic gardening can see how simple the process is!

Finally, I've always been a huge fan of Ruth's Chia Goodness. Gluten-free, raw, and packed with loads of vegan-friendly proteins and nutrients, the main ingredients of it are chia seeds, hemp seeds, and celtic sea salt. The mix is amazingly crunchy when eaten straight up and glutinously yummy when you add water or almond milk to it. Because I tend to be a purist and only ever buy original flavours when it comes to any prepared foods, I was reluctant to try any of the other Chia Goodness flavours but when I saw their chocolate flavour on sale for a ridiculously low price at our local health food store I couldn't resist... and man, have I been missing out! It's SO addictive. I think it's the added yumminess of the salty-sweet combination resulting from the mix of celtic sea salt, cacao nibs, cacao powder, and dates, but it's fantastic... I've been trying to not just eat it by the spoonful. Unfortunately, just trying to find a link for it now made me realize that I think the chocolate flavour was on special because it's being discontinued (I couldn't find it on the Ruth's website)... so that's a real bummer :o( It's always frustrating to find something you love right when you find the company has just stopped making it. Oh well, such is life. I'll just have to savour this bag and make it last as long as I can! Have a great weekend!