Raw Vegan Nut-free Oil-free Cacao Truffles

Yes, you read that right.  Low-fat chocolate?  Did hell just freeze?  Possibly.  It's been pretty cold around here.  When the lady hormones kick into high gear and all I want to eat is rich, creamy chocolate, I have to get creative. We all know that raw cacao has plenty of health properties, but when you have to make candies by adding oils or nuts, it can get pretty heavy and calorie-dense.  Now, I'm not one to count calories, but I do like to go light on my digestive system, especially since I've been juicing a bunch lately.  When I received my latest ten-pound box of medjool dates from 7HotDates.com, I had an idea.  And it was a good one!  If you are looking for a low-guilt alternative to the standard chocolate bar, enjoy these... Lots of these. 

Raw Vegan Nut-Free, Oil-free Cacao Truffles

Makes 20-25 truffles

12-15 soft medjool dates (you could use a harder variety of date soaked for an hour or so in warm water, just drain the water before processing.)

4 tbsp raw cacao powder (or cocoa)

1 tsp vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

1-2 tbsp plant-based milk

Shredded coconut for rolling (or other toppings such as crushed walnuts, cacao powder, etc)

Add the dates to a food processor and pulse until a ball forms.  Open the processor and break the date ball apart leaving pieces evenly spaced around the blade.  Then, add the cacao powder, vanilla, and salt.  Replace the lid and pulse again until you see that the moisture has broken into small crumbles.  At that point, as the processor is running, add just enough milk to turn the mixture into a smooth and creamy texture.  Once the texture is smooth, you're ready to form into balls, but wet your hands first to keep it from sticking.  Prep a bowl for rolling your balls into the coconut or other toppings.  I just put a few tablespoons of coconut in a small bowl.  I scooped about one teaspoon of the truffle mixture at a time and rolled into a ball between my palms before dropping into the coconut and rolling around to coat.  Once coated, place on a parchment-lined plate and refrigerate.  They will be very soft, but once cooled, they will firm up and be the perfect rich and creamy texture that we all love our truffles to have.  

The most difficult part of this recipe is not eating them all at once.  Holy geez, they're amazing!

Lavender Chocolate Green Smoothie

Most mornings, I make a green smoothie.  It's one of the easiest ways to get extra mineral-rich leafy greens into your diet.  Sometimes I make them heavy with pineapple or berries, but more often than not, it's chocolate.  I know, I'm addicted. But if loving cacao is wrong, I don't wanna be right.  This morning, I wanted a cacao smoothie, but with a little twist.  I decided it was lavender kind of day.  With the crazy-cold weather we've had here in Tennessee, I needed a taste of spring.  Here's what I came up with:

Lavender Cacao Green Smoothie

3 cups spinach

2 cups fresh almond milk

1 banana

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

5 drops lavender essential oil

1 scoop Garden of Life Raw Vanilla protein powder

2 tsp wheatgrass juice powder

2 tbsp maca powder

2 tbsp raw cacao powder

Stevia or other sweetener to taste

Dash of cayenne pepper

Dash of sea salt 

Blend the banana, spinach, and almond milk until smooth, then add all other ingredients and blend to combine.  With super-foods, you want to blend them as little as possible to minimize heat exposure.  If you don't have raw cacao, use your favorite cocoa powder or even chocolate bar.  If you don't have maca, protein powder, or wheatgrass juice powder, just leave it out.  The main flavor comes from the vanilla and lavender oil, so the extra stuff is just for added body and nutrition.  You could, also, use any essential oil flavor that you like.  I may try orange or peppermint tomorrow.  

It's so easy to be creative with green smoothies.  Make sure you have a green vegetable, a fruit, and a liquid.  Where you take it from there is limitless.  What's your favorite green smoothie recipe? 

Raw Chocolate Candy! Need I say more?

I'm a chocolate addict.  Maybe it's because I'm female.  Maybe it's because I need the minerals.  Maybe I just love chocolate.  I don't really care about the reasons, I just am.  To me, chocolate is heaven.  The darker, the better.  I HATE milk chocolate.  It's so gross.  If I wanted something that sweet, I'd just eat a handful of sugar.  I also have disdane for donuts.  Ugh.  Too sweet.  I think my obsession started my senior year of high school when I made friends with our German exchange student who's parents would send care packages full of European candies, and she would always share them in our art class.  Even after she went home that summer, she would ship Swiss and German chocolates to my house.  That was the first time I experienced REAL chocolate.  When you're 17 and American, you think Hershey's invented the stuff.  But after tasting that beautiful, bittersweet, richness that Christiana shared, there was no going back.  And so began my love affair with hard-to-find creamy, rich perfection.  As a vegan, my favorite store-bought brand is Endangered Species.  They have no animal ingredients and give 10% of profits to various environmental causes. Yay for living consciously!  If I'm going to buy a bar, I like their 88% dark or 72% mint chocolate.  Both are fabulous and low in sugar.  When you care about your health and want to gain the benefits of chocolate, always aim for 72% or higher cacao content.  

Lately, though, I've been trying to do more and more raw foods, so I started playing with some recipes for raw chocolate candy.  I bought a one-pound bag of raw cacao from Amazon.com and set to work.  Raw cacao is a great source of antioxidants (which help fight free-radicals in our bodies), as well as manganese and magnesium.  Manganese helps oxygenate blood, and  magnesium is a brain-balancing chemical, which could explain why we crave chocolate when stressed.  Raw cacao helps our bodies to release feel-good hormones.  Like you needed a reason to eat it? 

I've been adding superfoods to my candies lately, too.  I discovered the wonder of maca when I was trying to restart my hormonal systems in 2011 after being told I couldn't get pregnant due to my body not producing estrogen, like zilch, nada.  And since I now have my gorgeous, funny, wild, and sweet little girl, I think it helped.  This sweet powder comes from a root that grows in the Andes of Peru and is known for its hormone regulating effects.  It's been used for ages in both men and women to combat symptoms of menopause and andropause.  It's also been found to help increase energy, endurance, strength, memory, and circulation, as well as libido.  Ooh la la!  This stuff is so neat.  I purchase mine through TheRawFoodWorld.com.  They offer the highest quality maca that I've found.  Plus, I absolutely adore Matt Monarch and his wife, Angela.  (They have a YouTube channel all about the raw lifestyle.)

The main ingredient in my raw chocolates is organic, unrefined coconut oil.  You always want to buy unrefined coconut oil.  That means it's essentially raw and still contains all of the good fats, aka medium-chain fatty acids, which feed the brain and help you burn fat.  It's most affordable at Trader Joe's, but Kroger also sells it for just two dollars more per 16-ounce jar.  Unrefined coconut oil will actually smell and taste like coconut.  That's how you know it's the good stuff.  If you live in an area with limited resources, you can always purchase these ingredients online and have them shipped right to your door.  Doesn't get any easier than that.  

After a few batches of chocolate blobs, I invested in (if you can call $6 an investment) a candy mold, so now my chocolates are pretty as well as delicious.  And without further ado, I present my favorite new recipe:

Raw Vegan Chocolate Candy

Makes 30 small chocolates

1/2 cup coconut oil, melted

6 Tbsp raw cacao (can use regular cocoa if raw isn't available, but it doesn't carry the same health benefits)

4 Tbsp liquid sweetener such as agave or maple syrup (could use powdered stevia, but add slowly and taste as you go since it's very concentrated)

2 Tbsp Maca (optional)

Pinch of sea salt

1 tsp vanilla extract or 5-6 drops of your favorite essential oil (optional)

These are so easy, and turn out absolutely creamy and smooth.  Just melt the oil in a double boiler or use a glass bowl in hot water.  Whisk in the other ingredients and pour into a candy mold, or chill until it starts to harden and scoop into balls on a cookie sheet.  Then, refrigerate or freeze until hardened.  (Since coconut oil melts around 76 degrees, you'll want to keep these refrigerated.  I've found that the maca helps to keep them from melting quite as quickly, though).  

I attended a raw food meetup group on Saturday and took two batches of six different flavors; cayenne, orange, peppermint, lavender & vanilla, cacao nib, and coconut flake.  They were a huge hit!  I didn't have a single piece to bring home.  There's nothing quite like eating guilt-free candy.