How To: Make Chocolate Covered Strawberries, Blueberries and Almond Butter

February is a sweets lover's dream come true with Valentine's Day and is quickly followed by Easter and all it's glorious candy treats. Chocolate/Cocoa isn't bad in and of itself--it's the added sugar that makes it intolerable to Paleo followers. I've found a 90% Dark Chocolate Bar from Lindt (easily accessible at your local Super Target) that is inexpensive, easy to melt, and makes a delicious garnish to your favorite fruit, nut butter, etc.. Here's what you will need:


Ingredients:

• 1 3.5 oz dark chocolate bar. I used a 90% dark chocolate Lindt bar and the chocolate was a bit bitter. I'd probably use a 72-75% dark chocolate bar next time
• 1 package of fresh strawberries, preferably from Plant City, FL as they are the best!
• Half a container of fresh blueberries
• Almond butter--I used some of the freshly ground from Whole Foods 

Materials

• Wax paper
• 1 microwavable container
• 2 plates
• Spoon
• Microwave
• Fridge/Freezer

Directions

Spoon desired number of almond butter balls and place on wax paper. Freeze so you can dip them later. I did this while breakfast was cooking and dipped them while dinner was cooking, so about 9 hours. Wash all of your fruit before dipping. Plant City, FL strawberries!!! Yummy!!!

 I started with the almond butter balls, which flattened out a bit despite the almond butter being refrigerated when  I first formed them. This is what they looked like straight out of the freezer.

Break the chocolate bar into pieces and place into the microwave container. Melt in the microwave in 30 second intervals. It took my microwave 2 minutes to melt completely .Cover a plate with wax paper. Dip the almond butter balls into the chocolate and make sure they are evenly covered. Then spoon them out and place them on the wax paper covered plate.

Next, dip your clean whole strawberries into the chocolate and place on a plate.










Never one to waste chocolate, I used the rest of my blueberries and put them in the container. I put the entire container in the microwave for 15 more seconds and used the spoon to stir the berries.

Once all of your dipping is complete, refrigerate the chocolate covered fruit for at least 1 hour before serving. Keep in airtight containers in the fridge until ready to eat. Now you have some tasty paleo treats to enjoy for the next few days. 

How To: Make Paleo Pumpkin Cookies

This is a modification from a recipe courtesy of The Girl Who Went Paleo which can be found here. She characterizes them as Breakfast Cookies but I make them smaller and add them as a treat to any meal. Here's what you'll need.


Materials

• Large mixing bowl
• Knife
• Measuring cups
• Teaspoons and Tablespoons
• Cookie sheet
• Parchment paper
• Spoon

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup pureed pumpkin (not the pumpkin pie in a can)
• 1/2 cup almond butter (I make my own at Whole Foods)
• 1/4 cup of honey (this is half of what the original recipe calls for--makes cookies less sticky)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup of almond flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 cup of organic rasins
• 1/4 cup of while chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup of dark chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup of walnuts
• 1/4 cup of sliced almonds

Note: I usually make a triple batch as the organic pumpkin I use comes in 1.5 cup packaging, however when I made these I used triple everything except for the nuts, raisins and chocolate chips which I only doubled. These are excellent chilled and keep very well in the freezer. Sometimes I just sneak one out of the freezer for a snack!

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350. Line a cookie sheet with the parchment paper. Mix all of the wet ingredients in the bowl first. Here are the wet ingredients, unmixed and mixed.










Add all the dry ingredients and mix again. Here are the dry ingredients, unmixed and mixed.

Scoop the batter into your desired size and flatten to taste as these cookies do not spread on their own. See the unbaked and baked versions below. Bake for 10-15 minutes depending on thickness.

Remove from cookie sheet 2 minutes after cooling and place on cooling rack. Here's the finished product--enjoy off the cooling rack or place in an airtight container and refrigerate/freeze for later.

How To: Make Buffalo Chicken Dip (Not Paleo)

As promised in an earlier blog, here's my recipe for Buffalo Chicken Dip just in time for the Super Bowl. This is NOT paleo or Whole 30 because of the cream cheese, but I suppose if you took that out and just added a Whole 30 compliant hot sauce to the chicken that would work. First, make the spiced shredded chicken as outlined in this blog post.   You will use 2 shredded chicken breasts for this recipe.

After the chicken is prepared, place the shredded chicken into a casserole dish and pour hot sauce to taste. I usually make sure the majority of the chicken is covered in a medium sauce.

Place two 8 oz. blocks of cream cheese on top of the chicken and sauce. I use the full fat, regular cream cheese because 1. It tastes the best and 2. We know there is no reason to fear fat. This is a treat and as such it is better to eat the full fat version than the low-fat/fat-free/chemical substituted versions.

Microwave the dish for approximately 5 minutes, stirring after 2 or 3 minutes. The finished product will look like this.

Serve warm with celery sticks, tortilla chips, crusty bread and/or triscuits. This is also great leftover/reheated and makes a good lunch the next day. Go San Fran!