Raw Coconut Raisin Cookies

Eating healthy is a challenge.  At least it used to be. I am currently doing the Whole Life Challenge with our CrossFit Box, which involves challenging ourselves to eat better, work out more, get healthy in general. We have to remove several things from our diet: dairy, grains, sugar (even HONEY, I was horrified when I heard this!) and have to add more fruits, vegetables, REAL food, nothing processed. You can imagine how hard it is for me to be a *mostly* sweets blogger and not be able to taste test ANYTHING I make, which is okay, since I only made one thing so far for the blog that yes, I broke down and had a piece of. My Cherry Cordial Cake. (Check it out, you know you wanna.) I have made a few party cakes since and they smelled good enough to devour, but I managed to stay away. I am proud to say I have only lost that one point to that piece of cake at the very beginning of the challenge and I have not faltered since! As far as working out... Well, that's another story. One I won't bore you with, but I HAVE lost 6 pounds and I have not been working out much, so eating real food kind of really DOES make a difference! As it is, Larabars appear to be our saving grace at the box for snacks or a sweets attack, so I decided to make my own. I ended up with something else. I knew I wanted coconut and raisins in my bars, to kind of make an "oatmeal raisin" type bar, so I gathered my ingredients:

8 Medjool dates
1/2 cup shredded coconut, plus more for rolling
1 cup raw almonds
2 handfuls of raisins

I just kind of measured these things by the seat of my pants and somehow they worked out.

1.) Place dates in a food processor and process until a "ball" is formed. Remove from food processor and place in a medium bowl.
2.) Add 1 cup of almonds to the food processor and pulse to chop the almonds into small pieces. Make sure you don't pulse enough to create a "meal" type flour, you still want some chunks in there. :)
3.) While the almonds are still a bit chunkier, throw in the 1/2 cup of coconut and 2 handfuls of raisins. Pulse a few times, about 6-8 times.
4.) Pour the almond, coconut, and raisin mixture into the bowl with the dates and "knead" the mix together by hand. Once everything is incorporated, shape into 1 1/2 inch balls and roll in the extra coconut. I placed mine in a sandwich bag and refrigerated them for a while before I took a bite. They were delicious! They were even better the next day after sitting in the refrigerator, blending all the flavors together. Try them! You won't be disappointed!

These made approximately one dozen.

Thank you so much for looking! Now go bake something and spread some YUM!