healthy cookie dough bites

happy halloween weekend! 

i've always been conscious about what i eat but lately i've been on an even healthier eating kick... like dabbling in paleo and gluten free healthy... and no i don't have celiac disease. so why, you may ask, am i doing this? well there are a few reasons. 

reason number one is very simple: i want to stop putting processed foods into my body as much as possible and focus more on natural foods in hopes to make more progress in the gym. reason number two is that i seem to have developed a more sensitive stomach as i've gotten older and i can totally feel a difference when i eat clean vs unhealthy. so i figured, why feed myself junk and feel like shit when i can eat natural foods and feel good? it's very simple. 

i'm going to give this a try... and by give it a try i mean maybe about 75% of my diet... i never see myself going completely paleo because i love my sweets and pasta now and then... but we'll see where this goes.

so since i can't completely give up sweets, i've been experimenting with paleo desserts and found these amazing cookie dough bites that i jazzed up with peanut butter... and since this was a trial and error process, i probably ate half the dough while making them. whoops. but they are amazing and even after eating nearly half, i still didn't feel like complete garbage. so you definitely need to give them a try. 

Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Balls

1/2 cup natural peanut butter

1/2 cup softened coconut butter

1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup maple sugar

3/4 cup cassava flour

pinch of salt

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips 

1 cup chocolate chips - melted

Instructions:

1. Cream together peanut butter, coconut butter, vanilla extract and maple sugar with a hand mixer until well combined. 

2. Add flour and salt to peanut butter mixture. 

3. Fold in 1/2 cup chocolate chips.

4. Form into 1 inch balls, place on parchment paper lined cookie sheet, and then in the fridge for 15 minutes to harden.

5. Melt 1 cup chocolate chips (i used the microwave) and cover chilled balls in chocolate. Place back in the fridge to harden chocolate. 

6. EAT!