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Vegan Peanut Butter Stuffed Dates with Chocolate and Sea Salt

October 2, 2015 by Lisa Le 15 Comments

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Peanut butter stuffed dates with chocolate and sea salt are indulgent
and ever so slightly healthier than stuffing yourself with cookies. ;)

Peanut Butter Stuffed Dates with Chocolate and Sea Salt

While everyone has been for the most part, very supportive of the developments in my love life, I’ve hit a few road bumps that have made me take a step back, take a deep breath, and think. I do this thing in relationships that my friends have told me can be great and detrimental as well. Maybe it’s a bit naive, and probably a little crazy, but when I start a relationship with someone, I think long term. Not just regular long-term, I go all in—with the notion that things will turn into forever. I don’t just enter a relationship with anyone, I tend to ask myself, do I see a future with this person? If the answer is somewhere in the realm of yes, I dive into the relationship—sometimes head-first but usually heart-first. If not, then I don’t bother. Some of you may be thinking, Lisa, you are nuts. How can you say that you can do forever with someone when you’ve just started to date them? My answer?

Peanut Butter Stuffed Dates with Chocolate and Sea Salt

I don’t know, I just do.

What’s the point of trying a relationship if you don’t try to do it with the idea that it will be forever? I don’t want to waste my time on someone who doesn’t care, who doesn’t want what I want. Besides, what good is it if we hold back? If the relationship fails, it fails. Better to know it failed when you gave it everything you had than to regret because you weren’t completely yourself, or if you let something get in the way. It’s not that I expect it to last forever, sometimes people change and grow apart, and that’s just something you’ll have to deal with when the time comes.

Peanut Butter Stuffed Dates with Chocolate and Sea Salt

I’ve always lived with my heart on my sleeve. I’ve always given up my heart, probably a little too easily, and I don’t protect myself from getting hurt. It’s not that I don’t know any better, I think I just get blinded by all the bliss and happiness that in hindsight I forget about the past heartbreak. You never realize what effect you have on people when you’re hurting, and I think because the amount of heartbreak I went through before this summer, my friends and family are apprehensive about me entering a relationship this soon after I ended things with Chris.

 

Then they ask me this question that makes me wonder if I am being too careless with my heart.

“Are you over Chris?”

Peanut Butter Stuffed Dates with Chocolate and Sea Salt

It’s a question that kind of shocks me, even today. Because I first have to understand what it means to be “over” somebody. Even my past loves, I never really stop loving them, no matter who ended the relationship. There are small moments and memories I will have of them that I keep forever, sometimes forgotten until I stumble upon a relic of yesteryear that suddenly pulls me into summer nights of laughing and adventures. Then there are the memories that tug at me from inside my chest that feels more like an ache than anything. That moment where you realize things are going sideways and you do your best to push aside that sinking feeling because love is love and with love you can work through anything. Right?

This summer, I learned that love can only carry you so far.

Forever needs compassion. It needs understanding, it needs the flexibility to bend with the twists and turns of life. Forever needs realism. Forever needs rational and practical decisions. It needs more than just loving someone, because even when you love someone, you can hurt them more than you can imagine. The fear of hurting someone can lead to even more pain and heartbreak later on when you hit that breaking point where you realize that love just isn’t enough.

 

Peanut Butter Stuffed Dates with Chocolate and Sea Salt

Am I over Chris? Yes and no. I look back knowing I made the best decision I’ve made in a long time. Despite how much you love someone, sometimes you simply grow apart and you want different things. There’s really no way around that. You push the thought away because love is forever, until you realize it’s not. Deep down, I think I knew things weren’t going to work out but I still didn’t want to go down without a fight. That’s not how I roll.

Even still, I went having this person in my life who saw me grow and change day to day for six years, to never speaking to him again. I don’t miss him in the same way, but I miss knowing that the person I grew up with was always going to be there. It makes me sad to see that door close. I haven’t tried to check to see if it’s unlocked, but I’m not counting on it opening from the other side anytime soon.

It’s been a little confusing, and it’s taken me a while to get back on my feet. Before Burrito Boy and I actually started dating for real, he witnessed the emotional wreckage that was left behind. He helped me get back on my feet, being cautious with his own heart because he didn’t want to be my rebound. He’s been patient and understanding of all of the heart-related revelations and I am thankful that he hasn’t misinterpreted these mere reflections as anything but simply that. Reflections.

Peanut Butter Stuffed Dates with Chocolate and Sea Salt

When things get messy, sometimes it’s best to just go back to what you know. It’s funny how medjool dates find their way to helping me heal emotionally and physically. When I was struggling with disordered eating, I turned to the simplicity of dates to give me energy. Now I turn to dates to deliver me the comfort I see in my food while still being somewhat nutritious. Obviously I know I shouldn’t be eating these for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but it’s an indulgence that I think is better than most.

Peanut butter always finds a way to make me feel normal again. A spoonful straight from the jar is sometimes all I need to keep me going. I savour the buttery texture and wash it down with a glass of soy milk until all that’s left is that lingering peanut butter flavour on my tongue. For this treat, halved dates are filled with natural peanut butter, enrobed with dark chocolate to coat in this deep, velvety bitterness, and then cut with a hit of sea salt.

Make this for when you need a bite of comfort, because we all let ourselves get hurt sometimes, and it’s not the worst thing in the world. Love is love, and even though it was the worst pain I’ve felt in a long time, I’m not afraid to do it all over again. I just know this time that love doesn’t mean forever.

Continue to Content
Yield: 24

Vegan Peanut Butter Stuffed Dates with Chocolate and Sea Salt

Vegan Peanut Butter Stuffed Dates with Chocolate and Sea Salt
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 1 minute
Total Time 31 minutes

Ingredients

  • 12 medjool dates, halved and pitted
  • 1/4 cup natural peanut butter, chilled (room temp works fine too, it'll just be messier)
  • 1/3 cup vegan chocolate chips (Enjoy Life, Ghrirardelli or President's Choice are my favourites)
  • 1/2 tsp coconut oil
  • 1 tsp fleur de sel sea salt for sprinkling

Instructions

  1. Dates and peanut butter are easier to work with when chilled, so try to put them in the fridge for a few hours before making this. Not a huge deal if they're room temp though, it'll just be a bit messier.
  2. Half and pit all the dates and prepare a sheet or pan with parchment paper. Spoon about 1/2 tsp of natural peanut butter into the centre where the pit was.
  3. Refrigerate for about 5 minutes while you prepare the chocolate.
  4. Combine chocolate chips and coconut oil in a microwave-safe bowl (or over a double boiler). Microwave for 30 seconds and stir until completely melted. You may need to tack on another 10 seconds or so, but the best way to lazily temper chocolate is to melt about 2/3 of the chips and then stir in the remaining 1/3, so if after the first 30 seconds in the microwave, you still see unmelted chips, keep stirring to let the residual heat from the other melted chocolate carry over and melt the remaining chips.
  5. Pour 1/2 tsp-1 tsp amounts over the stuffed dates to coat. Sprinkle sea salt and let set in the fridge for about 20 minutes. Store in an airtight container and enjoy!
© Lisa Le

 

Peanut Butter Stuffed Dates with Chocolate and Sea Salt

 

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Filed Under: Dessert, Gluten-Free, Snacks, Vegan recipes Tagged With: chocolate, dessert, fleur de sel, gluten-free, holiday, medjool dates, peanut butter, potluck, sea salt, vegan

About Lisa Le

Lisa is the thirty-something, nerdy, procrastinating, feminist blogger and photographer behind The Viet Vegan. She loves spicy foods, noodles, and food in bowls.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Brenda says

    October 3, 2015 at 8:24 AM

    I don’t think it’s crazy to enter every relationship as if it could be forever. It’s certainly unrealistic if you enter a relationship at, like, 14, with that idea. But there’s definitely a point in life when, if you don’t at least see the potential for something really long-term, then what’s the point — assuming that long-term is what your relationship goal is. There’s nothing wrong with being in a place where one’s goal is categorically *not* long-term. But if long-term is what you want, then it’s just wasting everyone’s time to pursue a relationship that you know has no future, so I totally get where you’re coming from on that one.

    As for whether or not you’re ready, that’s something only you can decide, obviously, but I’ll just say this: At the risk of sounding like I’m trying to equate our relationships here, Don & I were both emotional disasters who were still recovering from recent heartbreak when we got together, and I don’t think either of us was *sure* we ready for a new legit relationship. So I don’t think that one needs to be *sure*, and I think it’s OK to take things as they come, without needing absolute certainty. That said, I would say that there’s also a significant difference between not being sure one is ready and being pretty sure that one is not. I wish you the best in this, whatever the best turns out to be. :)

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      October 6, 2015 at 9:38 AM

      Thanks Brenda, that does make me feel a little better about being a total disaster before meeting Burrito Boy. As always, thanks for reading and thanks for leaving very insightful comments =)

      Reply
  2. cel says

    October 5, 2015 at 4:54 AM

    I don’t know you, but i think you’re such a beautiful person <3
    @celinaeliz on IG (love making compassionate new vegan friends :)

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      October 6, 2015 at 9:36 AM

      Thanks =)

      Reply
  3. Lisa Le says

    October 6, 2015 at 9:36 AM

    I like to think so! =)

    Reply
  4. shan says

    October 13, 2015 at 11:55 AM

    Made these the other day. They are soooo good. Thank you!!!!

    Reply
  5. Meredith says

    March 11, 2016 at 9:51 PM

    Hi,
    I was just coming online to look for a recipe like this. I was thinking of just stuffing with the enjoy life chips, or sprinkling them on top. Do u think it would mess too much with the ratio?
    This is my first date recipe to try. I usually eat them plain or how my sister made them with bacon (before I went vegan)

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      March 14, 2016 at 2:11 AM

      You could stuff them with chocolate chips if you wanted, but I find melting the chocolate to cover the PB helps keep it all together. The texture of eating chocolate chips versus the texture of eating something chocolate covered is different. It’s entirely up to you though =)

      Reply
  6. Jeneen says

    July 7, 2016 at 7:01 PM

    Funny I did a search on Pinterest for Dates to see how I could better incorporate them into my diet and I landed on this page of your blog. Now I know this is old and I’m not even going through a break up personally myself; but I have never heard anyone describe my same exact mentally on how I feel about ex loves and break ups in general. It was as if I had typed those exact words out myself. So it’s nice to know someone’s on the same brainwave length as me. Hope it all worked out for you in the end. I can’t wait to te

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      July 27, 2016 at 10:26 AM

      Thanks for reading Jeneen =) It certainly did work out for me in the end.

      Reply
  7. Cheryl says

    January 5, 2017 at 1:02 PM

    Thank you for a great recipe! How long do these keep for? Do you refrigerate them or leave them on the counter?

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      January 5, 2017 at 8:00 PM

      I refrigerate them because natural peanut butter tends to separate, but I’d say they’re good for about a week when stored in the fridge in an airtight container :)

      Reply
  8. Rowena Potts says

    August 26, 2017 at 5:01 PM

    I made these today and oh my…my whole family and the kids friends loved them! So good for you too, thank you for the recipe! Rowena

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      August 28, 2017 at 2:47 PM

      Yay! I’m glad you enjoyed em :D

      Reply

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Xin chào! Welcome to my food blog. Thanks for visiting, reading, and enabling my obsession with food and photography.

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