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Healthy Easter Chocolate Recipes
My lovely friend Raw LouLou’s super easy raw cacao/carob bite sized chocolates – click on the picture to go through to her recipe and website filled with other delicious raw gems
Easter is next week and if you’re not thinking of Easter bunnies or painting eggs, I can guarantee you’re thinking about chocolate. Just because we do. Not matter what time of year.
The majority of you reading this post are doing so for two reasons. 1. you are a health enthusiast who always has an eye or ear out for tasty new healthy recipes or 2. you’re keen to avoid your customary guilt, feeling sick, mood swings (easily observable when it comes to seeing how your children react to regular versus healthy chocolate treats) and general ‘oh no, I did it again, couldn’t resist, overate chocolate now I feel bad’ routine. Preparing healthy chocolate treats in advance to have at home for visiting guests (and yourself) or to take with you when visiting friends and family is one way to ensure that you keep up with healthy eating, even when the Easter chocolate frenzy beckons.
Why ditch regular, commercial chocolate in favour of healthful raw cacao or carob?
The reason regular commercial chocolate is harmful for our physical and emotional health (and beauty) is due to all the added dairy, sugar, other additives and processing and heating the raw cacao which destroys many of its benefits.
5 benefits of raw cacao:
- powerful antioxidants are preserved, even more than are found in blueberries! (great for immunity, anti-aging, general illness prevention)
- high in chromium which helps to regulate blood sugar (when you’ve had enough raw cacao, you’ve had enough. Your body will tell you so you don’t just carry on stuffing yourself with it and overdo it. Yes, even for the most stubborn chocaholic)
- high in magnesium which helps with heart health, mental clarity, relaxing muscles and tends to be lacking in approximately 80% of the population’s diet, hence one of the reasons we crave chocolate (especially related to PMS, ladies, when our muscles and nerves are tense)
- contains no sugar in its natural form (which means that you dictate how much natural sugar you use in your recipes)
- caffeine free although it does contain theobromine, a stimulator
5 benefits of carob (from the carob plant. tastes more or less like chocolate but isn’t chocolate):
- doesn’t contain any caffeine or other stimulant (which means it can be enjoyed without subsequent restlessness, irritability etc)
- high in calcium which is required for healthy bones and teeth
- contains pectin which lowers cholesterol
- shown to be beneficial for digestion
- shown to be effective in cases of asthma and other lung issues (smokers – carob acts as an expectorant)
Here are two of my favourite, super easy homemade chocolate recipes:
- Rawtella This is a great one to have either instead of your regular nutella spread, as a chocolate sauce on ice cream, as a chocolate dipping sauce for fruit, to make chocolate covered nuts or, popped in the fridge in small chocolate moulds (bunny shaped or other), it becomes regular hard chocolate
- Easy homemade chocolates – scroll down to number 13.
Indulge. Being healthy doesn’t mean giving up on the foods we love. It means choosing the healthiest options of these foods. And enjoying them. 100%. What we eat nourishes us, fuels us and allows us to live with energy, zest, health and beauty. Our food should not be a cause of anxiety, stress and guilt. Choose foods that help you to thrive and live the life you want.
Do you have any healthy chocolate recipes to share with us? For those to already eat or decide to give raw cacao and/or carob a go, please share your thoughts – did you notice a difference in satiety, moods etc?
ps) tune in next week for simple tips on how to get over the excesses of Easter, for those who didn’t make their own healthy chocolates!
