Chocolate Bark
Heyy! So here’s a quick and easy dessert idea for you for the Holidays. It’s pretty cheap to make in large quantities and it won’t make you feel all that guilty for eating!
Now in this I use a few different dried Fruits, but feel free to add nuts, shredded coconut, different kinds of dried fruit, you could add Vanilla into the chocolate {or peppermint or cinnamon}. Totally customize it to what you like! Your guests will love it and you’ll love the lack of work behind it 
The ingredients are basically as much as you want, there’s no set in stone amount {which makes it even better!}
Ingredients:
• Chocolate
• Raisins
• Dried Cranberries
• Chocolate Chips
How To:
• Melt your Chocolate {I did it in a bowl over simmering water… you could use the microwave if you’re super pressed for time. Just be careful not to burn it!}
• Lay a piece of parchment paper over a cookie sheet or some kind of flat portable surface {I’ve used plates, pizza trays, cookie sheets, cutting boards, etc}. And spread your melted chocolate in an even layer over it
• Top it with your remaining ingredients or whatever you’d like {I made this for my Dad and he likes A LOT of raisins and cranberries so I went over board}. Then gently pat everything down so it sinks into the chocolate.
• Chuck it in the fridge for a few hours to harden. When done pull out and break apart. Transfer to a serving dish and either serve right away or stick back in the fridge until ready.
Boom… Easy right? Now you might be thinking this isn’t “totally paleo”, but for the holidays, for a nice treat for yourself I say go for it. Use the best chocolate you can find ingredients wise, make sure it’s dark… and you should be fine!
Happy Holidays!
Frozen Dessert…
**Warning** This dessert is only for my paleo friends who can eat dairy… you could use Coconut Creme and turn that into a “whip cream” instead if you can eat it
A well kept secret {Ok maybe not that well kept} is that pre-paleo I had a HUGE sweet tooth. Not the sugary-sweet tooth but the SWEET tooth. Chocolate, whip cream, cake, cookies, brownies you name it I loved it. {However my sister was always the sugary sweet tooth kind of girl … like she used to loveee sour patch kids {ick}}. Anyhoo… this dessert is a bit of nostaliga for me. It combines my love of whip cream, ice cream, and Cheese cake into one easy to make dessert.
It’s actually pretty similar to the Italian Semi Freddo Dessert… so if you’re looking for something maybe a bit less paleo for a big crowd along these lines check that out!
Ok here’s the recipe!
Ingredients:
• Organic Heavy Whipping Cream
• Frozen Raspberries {Or you could use strawberries or blackberries}
• Raw Honey
• Salt
How To:
• Defrost a couple of Tablespoons of raspberries {or more depending on how much fruit you want and how much you’re making}. If you’re like me and lazy you’ll probably shove those suckers in the microwave and get them all room temp that way! Do Not Drain it though, you want the liquid
• I started with half a pint of Heavy Whipping Cream {Which was enough for a regular soup bowl sized dessert} and hand beat it into Whip Cream. — **Guys, it’s not that hard to make whip cream by hand, it takes less than 5 minutes. Don’t be lazy and bring out the mixer that weighs more than your three old and takes up more counter space than you actually have. Don’t look at your hand mixer longingly… do it by hand. You get a much better whip cream and it’s mini-arm workout!
• In another tiny bowl scoop out a tablespoon of you raw honey and melt it in the microwave. Then add maybe half into your whip cream, beat it in … taste if it’s not sweet enough add more if it’s good don’t add more.
• Add in the smallest amount of salt.. like so little you almost don’t notice you put it in.. but trust me it makes a difference.
• Then in either one big bowl or tiny ramekins {so divide your whip cream and berries evenly} scoop some whip cream on the bottom spread it out, add your fruit {with it’s liquid!}, add remaining whip cream. Cover well with plastic wrap and freeze it for at least 3-4 hours.
Boom, you’re done… enjoy!
You can add vanilla or cinnamon or nutmeg to this, but I didn’t have any of it…so I didn’t worry about it!
AND AND don’t forget to sign up for the Webinar! My friends Jeff and Sam and I are going to be talking about some nutrition and workout stuff and just in general having a TON of fun… and who doesn’t want to spend a Tuesday giggling? Go to this blog post to get all the info!
Coconut Cake Bites
Seriously I was going for a non-nut cookie, and what I got was these wicked yummy things. They are like a cake a cookie a muffin and a pancake had a baby. But they remind me the most of cake. I did these plain but feel free to add dried cranberries, chocolate, coconut flakes, etc to them! {Or even drizzle some chocolate on top..yumm}
Ingredients:
• 3/4 cup coconut flour
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tbsp Vanilla
• 2 tbsp Honey
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp Coconut oil
How To:
• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
• Sift your coconut flour, salt, and baking powder into a bowl. Add in your eggs and coconut milk and whisk it together {you could use the mixer, I did it by hand though}.
• In a bowl, melt your two tbsp of coconut oil. Add that along with everything else into the bowl. Mix it all together
• Lay down some parchment paper on a cookie sheet, and grease it with either coconut oil or extra light olive oil. I used a 1 Tablespoon icecream scoop and scooped out little balls of cookie dough. They don’t really spread out so you can pack them in.
• Wet your fingers and just gently press down on the cookies so they flatten out a little.
• Bake for 10-12 minutes, let cool and your done!
Cookies!
I know I had mentioned something about pork and apples on facebook… but I’m too freaking excited about this to actually wait and post later.. and with the holidays… and lots of cooking.. well you know.. everyone’s oven has room for cookies haha.
Here’s the story on these… I love cookies.. adore them.. Paleo cookies are yummy. Problem is.. either Mr.Not Fully Paleo thinks they taste almost like a “muffin” or it’s not quiet what I wanted or I have to buy a million ingredients to make it.. I wanted a cookie that I didn’t have to buy special for.. and that wouldn’t break my bank.
Depending on how you make these.. either spread them out to look like a cookie or pile it up super high you’ll get a “cookie” or you could get a yummy muffin cookie.. or you could do it in a muffin tin and make muffins! I love versitale things..
And feel free to add shredded coconut or raisins or cranberries or more or less of something if you want it in there.. this is a jumping off point. go crazy, be daring! Have fun with it
Ingredients:
• 2 cups almond flour / meal
• 2 eggs
• 2.5 tbsp extra light olive oil
• 2 tbsp raw honey
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 a bar of dark chocolate, chopped up {roughly..1.75 ounces}
How To:
• Preheat your oven to 350 {F}
• I make my own almond meal / flour… I put almonds in a blender, pulse it for a bit {not too long or you’ll make almond butter}, then use a strainer and push it through so the bigger bits don’t get mixed up and its all the same consistency, then I toss back in the bigger bits that didn’t go through, pulse it again… until I’ve got all I can out of those bad boys! Feel free to use store bought, this is just cheaper and easier for me because I always have almonds at home You’ll need about two cups which is roughly 3/4 of can of non-ground almonds for me. If you have extra when you make it yourself, toss it in a bag and freeze it.. it lasts for a while in there!
• Dump your eggs and almond meal into a bowl, start to stir it, then add your extra light olive oil, mix it up {I would assume you could use coconut oil, or something similar.. I always have extra light on hand b/c of making mayo.. so this made sense for me to add!}. Then add the rest of your ingredients {mix it really well}. For the chocolate part, I just broke it up with my fingers, I wasn’t in the mood to wash a knife and a cutting board.. but if you want to, go to town and make it really finely chopped or if you have chocolate chips use those!
• Once that’s done, put some parchment paper {you could use aluminum foil if you wanted to} on a baking sheet, then using some extra light olive oil, grease up your pan {these will stick otherwise} really well.
• Spoon cookies onto the sheet, this cookies doesn’t puff up or spread out once they’re on there.. so spread them out to how you want them thickness and shape wise. It made 12 cookie-sized cookies for me!
• Bake for 7-9 minutes. Let cool, eat and enjoy
I love to slather mine with butter, because to me it still has a slight slight slight muffin idea to it and well.. kerry gold butter makes me one happy camper!
Chocolate…
Ha! How the heck has it taken me forever to dedicate a blog post to my favorite food… and yes chocolate is it’s own food group / food / amazingness.. there’s everything else and chocolate.. When I turned paleo I actually gave it up because I didn’t want to fall off the wagon { I’m a cookies, cake, frosting lover.. never liked the “candies” you know what I mean?} And I knew if I had chocolate I’d want cake and cookies and blah blah… but I’m over my cake obsession {mostly.. I have to glare a little at birthday cakes when they’re put on the table in front of me to remind me they’re {yummy} evil }
But I love chocolate still.. I think I mentioned the Dagoba brand forever ago.. they’re still my favorite brand.. Just make sure when you buy your chocolate you read the ingredients.. and I always stick to 85% or higher {you could do 80% if you wanted}. Some chocolate brands have soy and other funky ingredients. You want to find the most natural brand possible {that you can afford.. don’t freaking break the bank for a tiny piece of chocolate}
Now I’ve had to sample a bunch of brands to settle on the few that are my favorite.. you should probably do the same {tough work I know!}.. but once you find your top favorite, I’d start hinting at people.. We’re doing secret stocking santa this year in my family and I made it very very clear I wanted lots of chocolate and red wine.. I even told people the brand and where they could find it… So yes holiday season is approaching.. you might be getting gifts.. you might want to hint that you love chocolate and that they should get you xxx brand..
Yea I’m amazing I know! Now.. what’s even more amazing is what I made the other day when I was bored… I’ve been watching a lot of Jacque Pepin on youtube {whole post on that later}… and he did this with hazelnuts… kind of.. ok so here’s this easy EASY and cheap recipe.. and it can make a lot…
Ingredients:
- Chocolate
- Almonds {you could do cashews or another of your favorite nut}
- Cinnamon
- tsp of butter
Optional:
- Vanilla
- Dried cranberries or Raisins {unsweetened please!}
- Unsweetened coconut flakes {or shredded coconut}
How To:
- Use a double boiler { pot with simmering water, add a bowl on top.. don’t let the bowl touch the water though} and add in your chocolate.. melt it…
*** When it comes to chocolate, do not let water touch the melted chocolate it can seize on you, and it’s not pretty.. trust me.. and don’t let the water boil… low and slow once again burnt chocolate is icky..
- Add the tiniest pinch of cinnamon into your chocolate and your butter and stir.. if you wanted to add some vanilla.. or another flavored extract I’d do it now.
-Dump your almonds in and a cranberries / raisins now if you wanted them in, and stir it so everything is coated in chocolate.
- Use two spoons and scoop little clusters onto a parchment lined something {I used a plate.. but if you’re making a lot use a cookie sheet}. If you’re adding coconut to the top, add that on top now while it’s still wet.
- In the fridge they go.. for a few hours at least..
It’s so easy.. and yummy… I mean hi.. chocolate + coconut + almonds… They are addictive but filling at the same time so go easy on them or you’re going to feel like you used to Halloween night.. and no one wants a chocolate- induced can’t move my tummy hurts session anymore.
So try this out, experiment with it.. This is a great alternative to leave out for “santa” {or whoever else you might leave something out for} if you and your kids do that.. that way you don’t have to do the traditional.. and your kids won’t think your weird but suggesting something fruit / veggies related.
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