Living in a household where all three people are dieting is totally awesome, until all of you crave something not on a diet plan. Then it’s like a series of dominos; when one falls, the others follow.

So, finding recipes that are good and still pretty healthy is a treasure in my household.  Last night, I was scouring the internet for recipes that would be the break from the typical diet routine – not to mention gluten free, dairy free, meat free, taste free and not veggie burgers, mahi burger patties, turkey burgers, salad, quinoa, brown rice, beans which is what we have been eating for 6 weeks+…blah). Instead of finding any of those though, I stumbled upon a recipe for cookies (More like, COOKIES!!!!) with all of my favorite things – peanut butter, chocolate and best of all free of all the stuff I am not supposed to have (gluten, dairy, meat…).

I killed our little food processor (I tend to damage at least one thing or person when I fiddle in the kitchen), but was able to make it in my mighty Blendtec.

I got the seal of approval from both roomies (of course, we are all goodie deprived so at this point, ANYTHING that deviates from the diet plan is amazing!) and the Kidlet declared them “the best cookies she’s ever ate.”

Here is the original recipe, but I made my own modifications to meet my dietary needs. I’m pretty proud of myself…

Grain-free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites

Ingredients

• 1¼ cups canned chickpeas, well-rinsed and patted dry with a paper towel
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I used imitation maple because we didn’t have vanilla, and I was too lazy to go to the store)
• ½ cup + 2 tablespoons (165 grams) natural peanut butter, SunButter or almond butter (I used Justin’s Peanut Butter –the BEST nut butters ever!)
• ¼ cup (80 grams) honey (commenters have used agave and maple syrup with success!)  – (I used Raw Honey)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• a pinch of salt if your peanut butter doesn’t have salt in it
• ½ cup (90 grams) chocolate chips (I used gluten free, dairy free, mini chocolate chips)

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F / 175°C. Combine all the ingredients, except for the chocolate chips, in a food processor and process until very smooth. Make sure to scrape the sides and the top to get the little chunks of chickpeas and process again until they’re combined.
2. Put in the chocolate chips and stir it if you can, or pulse it once or twice. The mixture will be very thick and sticky.
3. With wet hands, form into 1½” balls. Place onto a Silpat or a piece of parchment paper. If you want them to look more like normal cookies, press down slightly on the balls. They don’t do much rising. Bake for about 10 minutes.