Sugar-free Tastalicious

Okay, I'm hardly going to claim to be a healthy eater. I don't necessarily even aspire to be (the chocolate cupcakes with peanut-butter frosting that I have on my kitchen table at the moment should attest to that). Come to think of it, in the last week, Justin and I have made (and eaten) yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting, blueberry muffins with struesel topping, and the afore-mentioned choco-pb cupakes. It's kind of frightening when you actually write that out. Anyway, the other day at the gym, my aerobics instructor was passing out handouts, one of which included a recipe for some healthy lemon-coconut-date bars. Since we've already overloaded our dessert intake, I figured I might as well make these ones as well. It turns out they are very tastey!

If ever you are doing some sort of challenge, or aren't allowed to eat treats or sugar or something like that, this recipe would be a great way to get your dessert fix!

1 cup almonds

1 1/2 -2 cups pitted dates (Medjool or other semi-soft date--I found these in the refrigerated area of the produce section)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp sea salt (I just realized I forgot to add this, but they are still quite delish!)

Zest of 1 lemon

2 tbsp lemon juice (I just put in the juice of one whole, very juicy lemon)

1 cup shredded coconut

Put it all in a food processor (you may want to start with just the nuts and process them down to a chunky powder) and process until everything is evenly mixed. Then just press the paste (I'm not sure if paste is really the right word) into the bottom of a pan and chill. Then cut into squares. Yum.

These aren't exactly fat free, but they've at least got the healthy/trendy kind of fat from almonds. But there's not a lick of sugar! Enjoy!