Good Karmic Eating- Raw Brownie Bites

Thanksgiving is over and I'm sure you've set your sights on the winter holidays. Parties, gifts, cookies. This year, indulge, treat your friends and feel good about it! Packed with protein, fiber, anti-oxidants and omega fatty acids. Chocolatey, decadent, delicious and your body feels really great the next day.

Ingredients (as adapted from nataliakw.com)

• 1 c. almonds
• 1/4 c. cacao powder (although cocoa isn't raw, it can do in a pinch)
• 1/8 c. ground walnuts/pecans/almonds OR shredded coconut OR mesquite powder
• 1/4 c. + 2 TB honey or maple syrup
• 1/3 c. hemp seeds
• 2 TB cold-pressed virgin coconut oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract or the seeds scraped from one vanilla bean
• pinch of sea salt
• for even more happiness, add dried berries or your favorite surprise to the middle of the brownie ball)

Most of these ingredients can be found at your local health food store or many grocery stores in the organic section. 

Methods/Steps

1. Place all nuts in your food processor and process until finely ground.  
2. Add the cacao powder, shredded coconut/mesquite powder if you're using it & salt and process again. Pour in the sweetener of choice, hemp seeds, coconut oil & vanilla and process until all is combined and sticking together. 
3. Roll into 1.5" balls with your hands. If desired, roll the finished bites in your favorite superfood powder, herb, or spice for a decorated look. Might I suggest cacao powder, mesquite, hemp seeds, chili powder, peppermint and coconut flour, dried berries.
4. Refrigerate or freeze for storage. Serve from the fridge.

Additional Tips

Mesquite is a specialty item with a sweet, rich, almost maple flavor, full of essential minerals, fiber & protein. If it's not available to you, feel free to substitute another dry ingredient such as shredded coconut, maca powder (reduce to 1 TB) or more almonds as we've done in this recipe. The flavor won't be exactly the same, but you'll still be blissed out from super powers of cacao and hemp seed.

The Color of Inspiration

"Warning...when I am an old woman, I shall wear purple." ... Jenny Joseph

Colors are unique and universal symbols. Whenever anyone sees colors, as when people see my aura, I ask them what the color means to them. After all, they're the ones who saw it, not me. Still, as marketing executives know, we can generalize a colors effects and meanings if we don't have a personal connection to it.

I love the color purple. It find it regal, warm and mysterious. Metaphysically, the color purple relates to the imagination and spirituality. It stimulates the imagination and inspires high ideals. It encourages introspection, allowing us to connect with deeper thoughts.

The color violet, versus the average purple, is visible light (think rainbows), whereas purple comes from a mix of red and blue. All colors have a measurable "frequency" which our eyes pick up. Violet has the highest vibrational frequency of all visible colors. Generally interchangeable, they both carry the qualities of red (spirituality) and blue (integrity). Both purple and violet unite and bring balance between the ethereal self and physical body.

Surrounding yourself with or visualizing purple or violet promotes an expanded mindstate, aware of possibilities and a larger reality. These colors represent the future, imagination and dreams coupled with objectivity. They inspire and enhance psychic ability and spiritual enlightenment, while simultaneously keeping us grounded; helpful when you seek meaning, purpose and personal transformation. 

For the more mundane, they encourage a lovely afternoon of escape, musing or daydreaming. Great for meditation, purple and violet promote mental and emotional harmony. You'll find peace of mind, and, a link between the spiritual and the physical worlds; between thought and activity.

Violet personalities encompass unconditional and selfless love, sensitivity and compassion. Sensitive to all forms of physical, sensory or energetic pollution, violets must take care to live in healthy, clean environments. Unique and independent, they range from artists, musicians, writers, poets and psychics. Using or visualizing the violet also encourages inspiration through creativity. In a humanitarian way, it inspires wisdom, power, sensitivity, humility and concern for the less fortunate.

Symbolically, purple represents royalty and the nobility, creating an impression of luxury, wealth and extravagance. It has a power, richness and quality that demands respect. Purple encourages leadership, ambition and self-assuredness. Too much may promote or aggravate depression, so use caution and discretion around vulnerable people and situations.

Positive and Negative Traits of the Color Purple and Violet

Positive keywords: unusual and individual, creative and inventive, psychic and intuitive, humanitarian, selfless and unlimited, mystery, fantasy and the future.

Negative keywords: immaturity, impractical, cynical and aloof, pompous and arrogant, fraudulent and corrupt, delusions of grandeur and the social climber. 

The Color Purple/Violet Represents: 
Imagination: Creativity with intellect - stimulates dream activity. 
Inspiration: Create original and sound ideas- use when looking for brainstorming inspiration. 
Individuality: Unconventional, individual and original. It hates to copy and prefers independence. 
Spirituality: Assists in prayer and meditation, helping get in touch with the deep subconscious. Found in religious stained glass, negatively it also relates to cult following.  

Effects of the Color Purple/Violet: 
Empathy: Compassion, kindness and a love of humanity. 
Controlled emotion: Passionate, like red, and inclined to privacy. 
Respectable & distinguished: In past times, only available to royalty and the wealthy. 
Impractical: Sees life through imagination not reality. 
Immature: Encourages unrealistic fantasy and an idealism. 
Dignity: Quiet and modest, appealing to others. 
Cynical: This is a negative side of violet. 

Variations of the Color Purple/Violet 
Mauve: Mauve assists wise choices and decisions; concerned with justice and fairness. Conversely, it symbolizes commonness, the social climber aspiring to higher ideals. 
Lavender: Lavender loves beautiful things and carries a fragility, sensitivity and vulnerability. 
Lilac: Implies immaturity, superficiality, youthfulness. Extroverted and enthusiastic, lilac inspires glamour, romance and vanity. 
Plum: An old-fashioned color, plum denotes honorable and family traditions. Unfortunately, it embodies prudish and narrow-minded behavior, frequently preaching. 
Amethyst: A mystical color, it opens intuitive channels. It protects the vulnerable and assists the humanitarian; the color of the evolved soul. 
Deep Purple: Higher spiritual attainment. Powerful, it can also indicate arrogance and ruthlessness.