Healthy no-bake cookies!

What's that you say?!  Healthy cookies?!  Is that even possible?

I'm here to tell you that it is!  Well, as healthy as a cookie can be I suppose.

I have a serious sweet tooth, and dessert was one of the most difficult things for me to give up.  After seeing a number of recipes very similar to the following, I decided I just had to try them out for myself.  Here are the recipes:

1) Chocolate/Pecan

     1 1/2 cup pecans
     1 1/2 cup dried, pitted dates
     1/4 cup nut butter (I used an all-natural almond butter)
     3/8 cup 100% cacao (I actually used unsweetened cocoa because I had it on hand)

     Combine all ingredients into a food processor and blend.  Form into balls.  (Makes about 20-25 small balls.)  Serve immediately or keep refrigerated.

     Yes.  They are really that easy.  Now, these are not sweet like your typical sugar laden dessert, but they have actually become my favorite of the two.  And they are certainly much healthier.

2) Oats/Honey

     1 cup nut butter (again, I used an all natural almond butter)
     1 cup honey
     3 cups rolled oats
     1 cup dried fruit or nuts (I used homemade raisins)
     Crushed nuts, granola, or unsweetened coconut (optional - I actually didn't do this)

     Mix the first four ingredients together thoroughly in a large bowl.  Form them into balls.  (These are kind of messy so I formed mine using two spoons, instead of my hands.)  Then roll them in the crushed nuts, granola, or unsweetened coconut.  Serve or refrigerate.  (Mine needed to be refrigerated in order to set up a bit.)

     These are slightly more work than the others, but still super easy and sooo worth it.  For those of you sweet lovers out there, these are definitely sweeter than the others.  They really do taste like dessert!  I got around twenty medium sized cookies out of this recipe.

Enjoy!