From mint chocolate chip ice cream cake for my birthdays every year to Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies, I’ve always loved the combo of chocolate and mint.
Choco Mint Brownie Bites Rolled in Protein-Rich Hemp Seeds
The rich and slightly bitter taste of dark chocolate pairs perfectly with the cool and refreshing hint of mint.
I found this recipe for chocolate mint truffles (AKA brownie bites) about a year ago on one of my favorite websites (MindBodyGreen), and I decided to make it again this year and pass it along to all of you!
Two of the main ingredients in these brownie bites – raw cacao powder and hemp seeds – are super powered super foods.
Hemp seeds are full of heart and brain healthy fats and are an excellent source of protein. That combo makes them great for stabilizing our blood sugar, and when blood sugar is stable, so is our appetite and, ultimately, our weight. I add hemp seeds to smoothies and salad dressings, too. They’re great! (Please note, even though hemp seeds share a similar name to a familiar plant, these hemp seeds will NOT have any impact on drug testing.)
If you’re unsure about hemp seeds, you might want to grow them yourself. That way, you can be sure that they’re safe to eat and you can even grow them organically if you so desire. Hemp is easy to grow, but if you’re not sure where to start, check out these ilgm reviews to see how easily other people have grown their own hemp. It’s also a brilliant plant for fertilizing your soil, so if you’re an avid gardener as well as cook, it’s the perfect plant for you. Just think how much better your tomatoes will grow!
Raw cacao (pronounced ka-KOW) powder comes from the same place cocoa powder does (the cacao plant), BUT it’s not heated like cocoa powder, SO all of its anti-aging, antioxidant, anti-disease nutrients stay intact. Raw cacao powder is the MOST concentrated source of antioxidants AND it enhances the flow of happiness chemicals in our brain like serotonin and dopamine.
You know everything you’ve heard about chocolate being good for you? It’s this stuff they’re talking about. Cacao is health-promoting, mood-boosting chocolate 🙂
These healthy brownie bites come together in about 10 minutes, too, and you don’t even have to cook them. Easy peasy!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup raw almonds
- 1/4 cup raw walnuts
- 8 Medjool dates (the big soft kind-make sure to remove the pits)
- 3 tablespoons hemp seeds
- 1/3 cup raw cacao powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 tablespoon water
Optional Coating
- 1/4 cup hemp seeds
- 2 tablespoons goji berries + 2 tablespoons hemp seeds (Grind up goji berries in a spice grinder and roll the truffles in a combo of goji berries and hemp seeds!)
- 1/4 cup raw cacao powder
- Candy canes made without high fructose corn syrup in your health food store (However, the recipe is NOT paleo if you use these. Try one of the other coating options first!)
**Click here for the full recipe from MindBodyGreen.
Looking for other healthier holiday treat recipes? Check out this post about 20 Holiday Treats to Knock Your Christmas Stockings Off!
Cacao-dusted Choco Mint brownie bites!