Tag Archives: chocolate

Hand holding Pistachio Oat Square

Pistachio Oat Cookie Bar Squares

Pistachio Oat Squares on counter

Chocolate and Coconut + 6 = Easy~Quick~Yummy

These delicious Pistachio Oat Cookie Bar Squares can easily be made vegan and gluten-free and are so pretty!  Plus super quick and easy to make with only 8 ingredients including chocolate and coconut.  They’re quite different from your typical holiday cookie, and yes they do stand out in a cookie crowd!  Extra bonus they’re much healthier than your typical holiday cookie, but believe me no one will taste them and be disappointed.  Let’s talk about that…

Pistachios are among the highest protein and lowest-calorie nut

Pistachios for Pistachio Oat Squares Recipe

These squares are adapted from a recipe in Jessica Murname’s wonderful book titled “One Part Plant”.  Raw pistachios and oats are the main ingredients.  Did you know pistachios are one of the most Vitamin B-6 rich foods around?  Vitamin B-6 is helpful for blood sugar regulation and formation of hemoglobin.  They’re also a good source of potassium and antioxidants, are among the highest protein and lowest-calorie nut, and their essential amino acid content is higher than any other nut–one of them being L-arginine which converts to nitric oxide in our body.  Nitric oxide helps our vessels dilate improving blood flow.

Continue reading Pistachio Oat Cookie Bar Squares

MOCHA EMPOWER GLO BARS

“Coffee and Chocolate–the inventor of mocha should be sainted” ~ Cherise Sinclair, Hour of the Lion

 Mocha Empower Glo Bars

Mocha Empower Glo Bars
Oh She Glows Every Day

It has finally arrived! Angela Liddon’s newest cookbook “Oh She Glows Every Day”!  I pre-ordered it and then life got busy and I forgot all about it, so it was like a special gift when the delivery guy showed up.  Don’t you love when that happens?  And I finally found time to really settle in and thumb through it while it rained and the wind howled as Hurricane Matthew blew by.

Just like the last, her new book is filled with incredible looking, easy to prepare, plant-based recipes, and as soon as I saw this new variation of her amazing Glo Bars it topped my “to try” list.  Oats, almonds, chocolate–all heart healthy.  Add a little coconut and coffee.. yummy and so easy to make. Continue reading MOCHA EMPOWER GLO BARS

Truly Amazing Raw Brownies

Truly Amazing Raw Brownies

All you need is love.  But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt. ~ Charles M. Schulz

Are you ready to be amazed?  I hope so because these gems are not only chocolatey, chewy and delicious, but are also good for you and your heart!  The other amazing thing about these brownies is how quick and easy they are to make–containing only three primary ingredients:  dates, nuts and cacao. Continue reading Truly Amazing Raw Brownies

Heart Healthy Orange Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Heart Healthy Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies

Moist and heart healthy Orange Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies!  Sometimes you just need something yummy and slightly sweet and these fit the bill.   This one involves a happy accident I must share because it makes such a difference in the flavor of these gems.  Preparing to make a batch last week, I’d zested the orange, but our plans suddenly Orangeschanged and I needed to do something with the fresh zest.  I know I thought!  I’ll put it in the ½ cup oil the recipe calls for and set it aside for the time being.  As circumstances would have it, it was several days before the cookie-making resumed, and now I had the most lovely, orange-infused oil!  A grand touch of serendipity.  It really punches up the orange flavor, so I highly recommend it if you can wait that long to make them.  My friend Kristy will be in town in a few days and I’m infusing oil now so I can serve these warm from the oven when she gets here. Continue reading Heart Healthy Orange Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies