Almost a month ago my sweet friend Cindy asked me if I might be interested in trying a recipe she created. I said “Sure!” and she sent the recipe to me, and that recipe has sat in my inbox all this time, patiently waiting for me to make good on my promise.

Well today is finally the day! Cranberry Orange Bites here we come!

I did a little tweaking of Cindy’s recipe, so check hers out for the original version.

Crust
1 C soaked, raw cashews
4-6 ripe large medjool dates (pitted)
1 Tbsp coconut oil

Cranberry Filling
1 C + 1/2 C whole, fresh cranberries, separated
2 Tbsp agave
1/2 C dried sweetened cranberries
1/2 C Orange Juice

Cindy’s original recipe calls for almonds but I was short on almonds so I used 1 cup of cashews instead. I let them soak in water all morning and drained them when I was ready to get started.

Soaked cashews went into the food processor with 5 medjool dates and a 1 Tbsp of coconut oil.

I scrounged out some muffins tins from the cupboard.

Yes, I care!

I pressed a heaping tablespoon of the crust mix into each tin.

Next into the food processor went 1 cup of cranberries and 2 Tbsp of agave nectar to make a cranberry puree. Mixed in with the cranberry puree went the other 1/2 c of whole cranberries, 1/2 c of dried cranberries and 1/2 cup of orange juice.

As instructed, I preheated the oven to 300 and then turned it off as I placed the cranberry bites in for about 2 hours.

This cranberry orange bite recipe made 12 servings, 130 calories each.

While I had the food processor out, I figured I might as well put it to work.

Curried Chick Pea Sandwich Spread for lunch tomorrow, for both me and the Z Man.

Next up? Some Sun Dried Tomato Hummus, sampled with a couple (four) Kashi crackers – just to make sure it wasn’t poisonous.

And then I’m not sure exactly what came over me, but I was in the mood to do some experimenting and created my very own vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe. The crust from Cindy’s Cranberry Bites was so incredibly yummy I used it my source of inspiration for the cookies.

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 C of raw cashews
6 medjool dates, pitted
1/3 C raw almonds
1 1/2 C rolled oats
1/2 C almond milk
1/2 C chocolate chips (I used Ghiradelli and as far as I can tell from the ingredient list, they appear to be dairy free)

First, I made oat flour with 1 1/2 cups of rolled oats.

Look! Oat flour! Like magic! A big shout out to Mama Averie for this tip!

Empty the oats into a separate bowl and make a big wet ball of dough with cashews, dates and almond.

Mix well, add 1/2 c of almond milk and then gently fold in chocolate chips.

The cranberry bites had been in the oven for about an hour and a half at this point and I pulled them out and turned the oven back on to 375. 1 Tbsp Cookie dough balls scooped out and plopped onto coconut oil greased cookie sheets. Cooked for 9 – 11 minutes.

I ended up putting my cranberry bites back into the oven at 375 for a little while because I wanted the whole cranberries to break down just a little bit more. After 10 minutes I took them out and put them on a rack to cool their jets.

The cookies came out of the oven just in time for the cookie inspectors to arrive.

Ava Tested, Ava Approved.

Maxine was too busy chowing to give me any sort of hand signals to whether or not she liked them. The cookie disappeared though and hasn’t been seen since this picture was taken. I’ve notified the authorities.

Then the time came do a little cranberry bite profiling.

They totally rocked! Good job Cindy, Zak and I both loved them. The kids wouldn’t eat them but this is no surprise. I’m sure they just look a little too healthy. We loved how perfectly sweet and tangy they were!

The cookies turned out great too, especially considering I had no recipe and was flying by the seat of my cookie pants. I love that they have no refined sugar, but they could have been just a *little* sweeter. If I had to tweak them I would have added a 1/4 – 1/2 cup of agave nectar. The chocolate chips saved the sweetness day.

These cookies clocked in at just 83 calories each. 26 cookies were made from this recipe.

It’s been a fun afternoon food processor! We make a good team!

You did real good my giant Cuisinart. Now hit the showers – you are a total mess.