Way back in September I took part in Sugar Free September. The whole low/no sugar movement is gaining momentum and I thought I’d give it a whirl. The Executive Summary of that story is: I did it, I feel great and fast forward now, We’ve stayed sugar free (mainly) because we feel GREAT.
Sure, there’s been a couple of what I call ‘Relaxing Moments’ but they aren’t biggies by any stretch of the imagination. What am I relaxing on? Wine mostly – Pinot Gris to be precise, my tipple of choice when the weather gets warmer. In context though, as someone who had a serious weakness for chocolate at 3pm, it’s nothing short of miraculous that I’ve eaten four squares of chocolate since late August. That’s it for the extent of my ‘sugar deviation’ not bad, right? I’m staying sugar free because I feel amazing. But I won’t witter on about that here because I went on about it here.
Anyhow, one of the things I enjoyed most about Sugar Free September was trying out new food and recipes and I thought it would be fun to share my favourite recipe from September. If you follow me on Facebook you’ll have seen this before as I shared the recipe for Pecan and Caramel Bark from the Cave Girl blog which, frankly, is a recipe of pure genius. So, with Cave Girl as my inspiration, I made up my own barky version and… YUM! Both bark recipes are so good that, even if I fall well and truly off the sugar bandwagon, I’ll still whip this up. Now, while I shared the recipe on Facebook, those little buggers at Facebook are playing mind games with me as some of my posts on my Facebook just vanish – like POOF! Gone! I have no idea why (if anyone knows – please enlighten me as this palaver drives a woman batty). So, for prosperity, here’s the Coconutty Bark recipe I posted on Facebook here on the blog: Now it’s kept safe for us all to enjoy!
PS If you are interested in the Paleo way of life, definitely check out the Cave Girl’s blog: http://www.cavegirl.co.nz/ Here’s their Pecan and Caramel Bark recipe too: http://www.cavegirl.co.nz/pecan-caramel-bark/
Coconutty Bark Recipe
Ingredients
1 cup chopped nuts (I used a mix of salted cashews, chopped Brazil nuts and chopped almonds).
1/2 c peanut butter (I used Pics Really Good Peanut Butter, because it lives up to it’s brand X 100%).
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla paste
2 teaspoons of honey (or rice malt syrup if you avoid fructose)
Pinch of Himalayan rock salt
Finely chopped sugar free chocolate
- Toast the nuts (dry fry them in a frying pan). Leave to cool.
- Mix together in a medium sized bowl the peanut butter, coconut oil, honey and vanilla. Add (cooled) nuts. Stir.
- Line a baking dish with baking paper. Tip mixture into dish. Smooth top down with the back of a spoon.
- Sprinkle with finely chopped sugar free chocolate and sprinkle with Himalayan salt.
- Put in the freezer. Try and exercise some self restraint and not tuck into it for half an hour until it sets/freezes. When hard, cut a bit off. Return to the freezer.
Holy moly. This is GOOD. Try it. I dare you.
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