This 5-minute recipe will leave your sweet tooth beyond satisfied and is guaranteed to make you question where it’s been all your life. While this delicious treat may be somewhat lacking in the appearance sector, its taste more than makes up for its visual resemblance to a roach! 

As someone who relies on microwave meals and quick snacks as a result of impatience and brutal cooking skills, my devotion to this treat is truly a testament to just how easy it is. Five minutes (tops) to make and 1 minute (tops) to devour…seriously what could be better than that?

To do my love for loaded dates some justice, I’m going to offer you a bit of an origin story. So, I tend to eat dinner on the earlier side which means I’m often getting hungry again right before bed. Pair that with a sweet tooth and I was constantly reaching for chocolate and sweets at night which did nothing to curb my hunger due to the lack of nutritional value in my choices; this only fueled my craving fire. This led to a recommendation to try to find more nutritious sweets and along came loaded dates! With dates being high in antioxidants, fiber, minerals, having a low glycemic index (works to regulate blood sugar levels) and more it’s easy to see why they have become so popular recently! The results of eating dates can lead to improved digestion and reduced risk of disease and they even work to promote bone health, brain health and natural labor, not to mention they have an amazing caramel-like taste! Then adding some peanut butter to give you extra protein and dark chocolate to provide more antioxidants and you’re good to go. Don’t you love when you find out that a treat beneficial to your taste buds can also be beneficial to your health?

As far as ingredients go you can of course use whatever brand you like but I listed my favorites! Below will be the ingredients for one serving of loaded dates, but the amount may vary depending on the size of dates you get so feel free to alter the quantity however you’d like! 

Without further adieu, I present to you the “Loaded Date” or otherwise known as your newest obsession!

Ingredients:

• 5 pitted medjool dates (I like the Trader Joe’s brand)
• 4 tbsp All-natural Teddy’s peanut butter
• 10-15 dark chocolate chips (Trader Joe’s brand again of course!)

To assemble:

1. Once I have all my ingredients laid out I take my dates and split them down the center to create a nest for the peanut butter. This can be a little tricky so feel free to skip this step and just spread the peanut butter on top!
2. Fill your date up! I’ll typically place a little less than a tablespoon in each date depending on the size and how well I cut it open. I just do this with a spoon but you could totally get fancy and put the peanut butter in a piping bag for more precision and bonus style points. 
3. Final step and my favorite step! Add 2-3 dark chocolate chips to your date by sticking them on top of the peanut butter and voila! Side note: You can get a little crazy and add all sorts of things to spice up this recipe! Crushed nuts to give it a snickers taste, a crack of sea salt or a friend even recommended coconut flakes! The options are endless!

3 ingredients, 3 steps, nutritional value AND so delicious; it’s almost too good to be true! In all seriousness, this is my favorite thing right now and I am constantly looking forward to it, so I hope you love it as much as I do! Let me know if you try it out 🙂