My Mom put me up to making dessert for our family lunch on Sunday this week. Not wanting to disappoint, I took to Facebook and Twitter to see if anyone had a show-stopping recipe I just had to try.

The ideas came pouring in and were SO delectable (seriously – drooling in my PJs circa 9am reading all of them!) There were about five that looked so decadent I felt like I HAD to have them this afternoon – but I held out. Instead, I made babies.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Babies!!!

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Oh, you thought I meant…oh my, no!

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These sweet & chewy bites are basically homemade Larabars, squeezed into cute little baby balls – and they’re only 70 calories a ball!!

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I’ve had this recipe, courtesy of Chocolate Covered Katie, in my back pocket for the past couple of weeks and knew they’d be perfect to cure my craving for a sweet treat, at a fraction of the calories. I started by adding dried chopped dates, salted peanuts and vanilla extract to my mini food processor.

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Then I processed the heck out of it!

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My dried dates were UBER dry, so after 3 minutes of no luck getting the mixture to come together, I added a teaspoon each of peanut butter and water.

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Just the ticket!

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When the mixture was processed enough to stick together when I squeezed some between my fingers, I transferred it to a bowl and stirred in 1/4 cup chocolate chips.

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That’s right!

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Finally I pressed and rolled the batter into 9 balls.

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These will blow your sweet tooth out of the water, off the beach and clear onto the mainland. THEY ARE SO FREAKING GOOD. Only 70 cals a ball, and you’ll really only want 1 or 2 – they are really decadent. Sweet, chewy, peanut buttery (it’s a word) and those pops of chocolate are mouthwatering.

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Check out Katie’s site for this luscious recipe. NOTE: I added one teaspoon each of peanut butter and water to her recipe, but if I had been using softer Medjool dates, I probably could have omitted it. I also stirred in 1/4 cup of milk chocolate chips at the end!

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