gluten-free, vegan, raw macaroons

Recently I have developed some food allergies and have had to change my diet drastically to a gluten-free, grain-free, soy-free, dairy-free, basically fun-free diet!

I must say I have been doing pretty well and haven't missed much of the old stuff much except... dessert! I have a huge sweet tooth, so I have had to search for desserts that I can have.

I have found a couple brands of gluten-free, vegan macaroons that I really like from Whole Foods. But of course they are pretty pricy. So I was looking at the ingredients and realized that I already had all the ingredients, and they would be pretty simple to make myself!

So I decided to experiment with some of my own recipes using my Vitamix.

I made two kinds to start out:

(left) dates, peanut butter, shredded coconut, coconut flour, chocolate chips, cinnamon, vanilla, sea salt
(right) dates, shredded coconut, coconut flour, chocolate chips, cocoa powder, cinnamon, honey, vanilla, sea salt

 Here are the basic ingredients I like to use:

coconut four, shredded coconut, dates, cinnamon, vanilla, sea salt

And here some additional ingredients you can add:

honey, 100% cacao powder, almond butter, peanut butter, enjoy life chocolate chips

Basically I start with a few dates (pitted):

Then sprinkle the other ingredients on top:

Blend, and then form the "dough" into little balls. You can store them in the refrigerator for at least a week I would think! The beauty is that you can make as much or as little as you want, and with whatever ingredients you like depending on your preferences/dietary restrictions!

I also really love Larabars. My favorite is the peanut butter cookie flavor, and I noticed that there are only three ingredients in them: dates, peanuts, and sea salt. I plan on making some of these next!

Enjoy!