Last Tuesday afternoon I found myself madly cramming raw almonds into a handful of pitted medjool dates before repeatedly shoveling them into my mouth. What else is new, right?

Oh wait, I forgot to mention it was 3pm and I was approximately 8 hours into a 3 day juice cleanse. I know.

See, I’d just gotten back from Napa where I’d been spoiled rotten with good food & wine for 3 days straight. A fellow blogger on the trip told me about this fabulous, one-week juice cleanse she goes on whenever she’s overindulged, and while I knew 5 days without solid food would never fly, surely I could make it a measly 3 days in order to cleanse my olive oil-drenched soul, right?

Wrong. So wrong! In fact it seemed I most definitely could not make it a measly 3 days, as evidenced by the juice cleanse killer carnage taking place just EIGHT HOURS in.

Just like Joey doesn’t share food – Kristin does not do hungry!

Besides a ravenous appetite and huge distaste for liquid celery, one thing I took away from my half-day cleanse was realizing how ridiculously delicious crunchy almonds stuffed inside chewy-sweet dates taste. And not just when you’ve been drinking beet juice all day either.

A few days later I began to wonder how this delectable combo would taste if it were wrapped in salty bacon then baked until warm & chewy. Bacon-Wrapped Almond-Stuffed Dates were immediately prepped, baked, and popped. These babies are mind melting!

Bacon-Wrapped Almond-Stuffed Dates

Print this recipe!

Makes 20 dates

Ingredients:
20 pitted medjool dates
40 raw almonds
10 slices center-cut bacon, cut in half

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil then place a cooling rack on top and spray with nonstick spray.
2. Push 1 almond into each end of each date. Wrap with half a slice of bacon then place seam side down on the cooling wrack. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until bacon is crispy.

Chewy, salty, sweet, incredibly rich and decadent, Bacon-Wrapped Almond-Stuffed Dates are perfect for a party, as an appetizer, or when you’re simply starving after trying to convince yourself that you can live on juice for more than a day. You will LOVE them!

Oh, another benefit of my short-lived juice cleanse? Discovering that ginger makes any juice better. Really! I like ginger as much as the next gal, but don’t like things too gingery. A 1/4″ sliver added to a refreshing glass of Apple Carrot juice though? Perfection! (Here’s the juicer I have, btw!)