Stay Slim For Your Summer Dress With Date and Almond Bites

​Communications​ professional by day and culinary adventurer by night, Alicia loves to share hospitality and home cooked meals with friends. She writes Jaybird, where she goes beyond recipes and shares life lessons, personal growth and ways to find happiness every day. Connect with her on Twitter,​ Instagram and Pinterest for more food and snapshots!

Now that it’s finally spring, Alicia is happily cooking in her polka dot Penelope dress from Karina, a fun and swingy frock with pockets for all kinds of treats.

With the incoming spring sunshine and warm weather, it’s hard to sit through a whole day indoors. While winter weekends included a lot of blogging and catching up on Game of Thrones, spring weekends are for picnics, adventures and long walks with friends. I can spend hours outdoors, but there are a few things I need to bring with me:

• Sunscreen
• A full bottle of water
• A good book, for those moments when I find a perfect spot to sit down and read
• A snack

Today’s recipe is an easy, healthy snack that’s perfect for traveling in the summer months, and will keep you fitting in your summer dress! You can keep your kitchen cool by leaving the oven out of it. It just takes a few moments to make these date-based snack bites, and you can make them any shape you want. For simplicity’s sake, I rolled them into balls, but you can also press the “dough” into a flat layer and use a cookie cutter to cut out fun shapes.

Date and Almond Bites

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: none!

1 cup roasted almonds

1 cup dates

2 tablespoons almond butter

optional: 1-2 tablespoons water

In a 7 cup or larger food processor fitted with the S-blade, process almonds until finely ground.

Add dates and nut butter and continue to process, adding 1-2 tablespoons water if needed (I like to speed up the process).

Process until the texture reaches a smooth consistency. The mixture will come together in a large ball that rolls around the food processor; this is fine.

Roll the mixture into bite-sized balls and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Refrigerate until firm and store in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Throw on your summer dress, enjoy your summer adventures, and bon appetit!