Fig cake balls oh my gawd

I have a terrible sweet tooth - it's fucking annoying.  Right now we're on a little more than a week of being back on Paleo, and I've been dying for sweet stuff.  Dying.  We got a small blender over the weekend, which is better for smoothies - I've been using the food processor, woops.  I toss in a banana, a few strawberries, almond butter, and some almond milk and ice and I'm good for a fix normally.

I can't deny that I would eat sweet things all the time if I could.  It's a disease, really.

My biggest concern on being on Paleo was that I would lose my sweets.  Yes, I know they're terrible for you.  I know the wisdom, but goddamnit, sometimes I want something sweet.  I get happiness out of it, if you will - if you say something otherwise I will fight you.

I am, however, trying to make an effort to get excited about Paleo. I mentioned in my last post that it wasn't something I came to lightly, and it's still something I get frustrated about, particularly when I'm chopping vegetables and all I want to do is pour a bowl of cereal and curl up on the couch and watch tv.  That's when it's hard, and that's when I'm at my most loathsome.  I've been reading blogs and websites from motivated Paleo people, and it's helping.  I'm reblogging things I see on Tumblr I want to try and bookmarking recipes on my iPad.  It's a process.

In my effort to get excited, I of course ran straight to see what sweet things I could have.  And I found this recipe by PaleOMG.

I think I was successful.

Oh man was I stoked when they came out okay. I toyed with the recipe a little, added more cocoa (sweet tooth, ok?), less honey and salt.  This picture was from my first batch during the middle of the week.  They went fast - my sister and her girlfriend were over, me and Danny and his brother.  I just made a lot more right now (about two whole packages of figs and a whole package of cashews) and they're chilling in the freezer.  It helps to keep them firm, plus I like them cold.

They're definitely not the best for you, especially if you eat a bunch at once - I mean, that's a whole package of figs and half a bag of nuts.  Yikes!

But they help with my sugar cravings, and they're way better than the alternative.  It's foods like this that make me excited about Paleo, especially because they came out so good.  I need positive reinforcement with food I make, and it's all I've been getting, so fuck yeah fig balls.

On a not so positive reinforcement note, I tried making sweet potato hummus the other day.  It was ... well, it was ok. Way too sweet and not hummus-y enough for me at all.  You win some, you lose some.

I picked up some mason jars a few days ago and some mint leaves today and I'm planning trying my hand at flavored waters.  I like cucumbers and and strawberries in my water, but the aesthetic of it in a mason jar is my main driving force right now.  We got a new grill this weekend also, so I'm hoping we make some chicken skewers.  I love me some skewers.