Friday, March 30, 2012

Homemade Chunks of Energy

I must confess: I am an addict. To THIS:

You know what they say - everything tastes better with a little cat hair on it!

I think they should be called “chunks of heaven” instead of “chunks of energy”. Pictured above is my favorite of those offered at my local health food store: raw goji berry cacao. They are expensive little stinkers. So, in the spirit of diy, today was my first attempt at makin’ my own. I looked up a few recipes online, went to the store, and absolutely winged it. From the recipes I looked at, it didn’t matter what kinds of nuts, seeds, sweeteners, or sticky stuff you used, just that the right consistency and taste was achieved. Below you can see most of the ingredients I chose: raw slivered almonds (they’re cheaper by the pound than whole, and I was going to process them anyway), raw sunflower seeds, sunflower butter (another addiction), dates and vegan chocolate.

I used Endangered Species Chocolate Intense Dark Chocolate with Cacao Nibs. No, Endangered Species Chocolate did not send me a sample to blog about, but I would be more than willing to sell my blogging soul to endorse their product should they decide to send me some!

First, I soaked my dates in about a quarter cup of water while I tossed, not measuring at all, approximately 2 cups sunflower seeds, 1 cup slivered almonds, ¼ cup chia seeds,

about 3 Tablespoons fresh-ground flax meal (which I keep in the freezer), 2 Tablespoons honey, 4 Tablespoons sunflower butter, about half the bar of chocolate, then tossed in the soaked dates and water. Blend! I had to stir it around with a spatula a few times because it was very thick. Adjust with water or honey or sunflower butter for proper consistency as needed.

More processing...

Then I plopped it out of the food processor into an 8x8 pan,

squished it down, and because I also love cinnamon (and it is an anti-inflammatory), I sprinkled some on top. Then I just popped it in the fridge.

A few hours later, I sliced and popped them out of the pan. They turned out great! They were a little less dense than the commercial ones, but stuck together just fine. They tasted really good too, but next time I think I will add more chocolate!

Since I’m running the Monument Avenue 10K tomorrow, these will be a perfect post-run high-protein snack! I didn't do a cost analysis on this, but, as you can see, my recipe made a lot! I'm pretty sure I saved money.

5 comments:

Brandon Schaefer - Acrylic Artist said...

Fantastic blog! Really looking forward to future posts :)

Malory said...

Thanks Brandon! I appreciate the encouragement!

Anonymous said...

I'd love to see this recipe with raw cacao. But it may be a good jumping off point. Thanks!

Malory said...

Thank you! If you'd like, check out my new blog at maloryfoster.wordpress.com. :)

Anonymous said...

What amount of dates did you use?