The Chocolate Post

Ahhh...what you've all been waiting for! My mother was sweet enough to send me a package of goodies...but I ate them before Valentine's Day. Naturally, I went out and bought more. ;-) However, I am giving up chocolate and trying to watch how much sugar I consume for Lent, so I figured it was my last big hurrah. Without further ado, the eats:

These were chocolate covered banana pieces; they were different than I expected. They were good, but they tasted a bit either like plastic or alcohol, I can't decide, haha. They looked like chocolate-covered raisins.

I had to be a representative for my club at an accepted students' reception at the college, and they had the most delicious appetizers: wine-marinated grapes, endive with walnuts and cranberries, and these beautiful chocolate-covered strawberries. They were oh-so delicious.

And again. Look at that yummy chocolate drizzle and strawberry juice oozing out!


Next up, these babies:

Chocolate covered almonds. I like these because they have a thick shell of chocolate around the almond, and the chocolate is pretty dark and not that sweet, like it should be! ;-)

It looks like a turtle, but it's not. It's a dark chocolate cashew cluster. It was pretty good, except a little too salty for my taste.

The inside, with a mammoth crater from where a cashew used to be...

Has anyone tried this flavor yet? It's Maya Gold ("bittersweet dark chocolate with orange and spices"). It's super delicious and almost as good as mint chocolate.

Hmm...where did it all go? :-)


And finally, my MOST FAVORITE dessert of all. I could eat these all day (well, not really, but I do enjoy them so!).

Carob-covered raisins, how I love thee!


Those little babies are delicious beyond belief! Too bad I won't have them for another 40+ days...


Of course, I did not consume all of these things in one day, though I would have liked to. I think I would have been all chocolated out if I did! I don't eat any other candy (non-raw, that is) but chocolate, and I prefer to have it as dark as possible.


Did you enjoy the chocolatey goodness of the post? What are your favorite chocolate candies?

Raw Chocolate: Attempt 1

The dining hall finally has spinach...hallelujah! I love spinach more than any other green, leafy vegetable and when there's a shortage... : ( For lunch and dinner I had a lovely spinach salad with some artichoke hearts and red cabbage slaw (it's always the luck of the draw as to what "special salads" they have down there) and a side bowl of melon. Yum.

Last night I attempted to make raw chocolate, til I realized that my cacao nibs weren't going to grind up into a fine powder. So I decided to go with carob powder instead. I mixed about a tablespoon of coconut oil in a semi-solid state with a teaspoon or so of raw agave and a tablespoon of carob powder. As I was mixing it, it sort of formed this giant, squishy ball. Not at all like the liquidy chocolate I was expecting to freeze. So I put it over my radiator to warm it up a bit, thinking that it would melt the coconut oil and make the whole concoction more liquidy. Um, no. It remained a squishy ball, only now it was a little oily around the edges. So I decided to add more carob powder. That was not so great of an idea either, as it clumped up. Exasperated, I threw in some dehydrated coconut flakes, put the thing in the freezer, and called it a day.

This morning, when I woke up, I ran to the freezer and found this:

Not that appetizing, but it was very tasty. It reminded me of the "cookies" part of "cookies-n-cream" ice cream. I got all excited and immediately started planning how to make raw cookies-n-cream ice cream when I get home in...3 months. Bummer.

To satisfy my chocolate-y cravings (since the raw chocolate thing obviously didn't work out as planned), I decided to make carob chia pudding. Except this time I was determined to make it less like tapioca pudding. So I took a long shot and attempted to grind the chia seeds into somewhat of a powder, then mixed in almond milk (unfortunately, from a box and not raw), agave, and carob powder. And guess what? It worked! It wasn't all that chocolate-y (it could have stood to have a little more carob), but it wasn't like tapioca at all. It had a much better texture, and the little chia seeds still worked their magic to thicken the concoction up. This is not a great picture, but you get the idea:

It was pretty tasty.

I am still on the quest to make raw chocolate. This week will be pretty busy, so we'll see...