Recipe Post: Cocoa Walnut Date Balls (can be sugar free if you want them to be. Wow! A poem!)

I ate all the Christmas cookies I could get my hands on this holiday. I told myself nine cookies were fine, at least I wasn't on my ninth glass of wine. Now that Christmas is over I'm getting a handle on that tiny fiasco. These little guys are delicious. Great for breakfast, snack, or dessert after dinner with some hot tea, an afghan, and a book.

Cocoa Walnut Date Balls

2 cups walnuts (use any kind of nuts you like, and mix them if you want too. I just think chocolate and walnuts are one of the most delicious things in the history of man so there you go.) You could use peanuts. I don't because I do the whole Paleo thing. (unless I'm downing handfuls of Christmas cookies)
2 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder. I use Chatfield's.
2/3 c. Medjool dates
3 tbsp. toasted shredded coconut (optional)
2 tbsp. honey (optional)
1/2 tsp. vanilla
pinch or 2 of kosher salt

Pulse nuts in a food processor until a fine-ish meal forms. Add other ingredients. Process until combined. Mixture should hold together when you pinch it between your fingers. Dump mixture on parchment paper. Coat hands with oil. (I use coconut oil) Grab a bit of the mixture (enough to make a bouncy ball sized ball) and push it together. It won't really "roll"... you just squash it together in a sort of roundish shape. Refrigerate.

Fine-ish nut meal.

All the rest of the ingredients. Just toss 'em all in.

Mixed up. Much like me when I was drunk. Luckily this stuff is mixed up in a good way.

Parchment paper is one of the best things in the entire world. 

TA DA!!! Yummy deliciousness awaits.