Apricot Coconut Bliss Balls

Its been a while since I refined one of my bliss ball recipes, but since I have been out and about with the new Home-Ed group doing 'park days' for around 10months now, I've found these little packets of energy just so, so useful to have in the picnic hamper. Especially when my 3year old has been taken with wanderlust a lot more, which leaves me not having lunch on the picnic blankets with other Mums, but out and about, here and there, following my little explorer with a handful of edible things to munch along the way.

This is a quick recipe, pretty fail-safe, dairy free and if you leave out the Raw Wheatgerm its also gluten free. Just a note on the ingredients; I always use foods that are as natural as possible, so that means, no GMO stuff, predominantly Certified Organic, and if I use dried fruits I obtain the kind that do not contain sulphites or preservatives. To me, there's no point in 'doing health food' if its not really, truly, healthy...

First up, the ingredients list:
200g Dried Apricots
Handful Dried Goji Berries
Handful Sultanas
12 Pitted Prunes
30ml Flaxseed Oil (cold-pressed, virgin)

5tblspns Fine Coconut
2tblspns Raw Wheatgerm (replace with Coconut or Chia Seeds if you want to have gluten free bliss balls)
2tblspns Dulse Flakes
2tblspns Chia Seeds
2tblspns Quinoa Grain

Handful Walnuts 
Handful Almonds 
One half or 3/4 of a Vanilla Pod

The method is to generally get the dried goods chopped up, the nuts whizzed in a food processor, then to add 'the other bits'...this is how I did it...

1. Chop up the Vanilla Pod, Apricots, Sultanas, Goji Berries and Pitted Prunes and whizz them in the food processor for around a minute to get the Apricots finely chopped up. Tip that lot into a mixing bowl.
2. Put the Nuts, Coconut, Raw Wheatgerm, Quinoa and Chia into the food processor and chop up till fine but slightly chunky here and there. 'Rubble' texture.
3. Add the dried fruits mix back into the food processor along with the Flaxseed Oil, a little at a time. Blend until the mixture comes together in a blob.
4. Remove from the food processor into the mixing bowl and give it a bit of a turn over with a tablespoon so that you are satisfied the ingredients are well mixed up.

Then its a case of rolling small portions into balls, and then rolling them in some more coconut so they don't stick together. Tub up and keep cool or refrigerate. These last for a day in a 'pack up' and make a tasty and super-nutritious snack. Refrigerate for a few weeks...but they'll be eaten before then anyway.

Enjoy! :)
Blessings
Nette
xxx