Chocolate Coconut Chew Bars

We only just recently discovered Larabar's. Those bars are so delicious and naturally made that we fell instantly in love. But being that we love to make everything by hand and the ingredients lists were so natural we decided to try making our own version. C, our main cook in the house, got cracking on making our versions have less carbs and be just as tasty. They turned out amazing! He's also made Cashew bars and Apricot Walnut bars. They are all so good! Today I'm going to share his Chocolate Coconut Chew recipe and how he makes them. These are definitely our favorites so far. I mean, cocoa + coconut + almonds, how can it be wrong! These are gluten-free, no sugar added and naturally raw.

Ingredients:
10 oz. unsweetened dried dates
1/4 c. coconut oil
6 oz. unsweetened shredded coconut (if you prefer less coconut texture you can chop half or all of the coconut in the food processor. We do half chopped and half as-is.)
4 oz. raw almonds, chopped
4 oz. raw walnuts, chopped
1 c. cocoa powder

Mix the dates and coconut oil in the food processor. You want it to chop up the dates and blend the coconut oil well. When it's finely ground it will start to clump together.

Dump the mixed dates and coconut oil  into a decent sized bowl. Add the chopped almonds, walnuts, coconut and cocoa powder. Now it's time to get your hands dirty. With clean hands start blending the ingredients together, making sure there aren't a lot of large clumps. You want everything to be well mixed. It will be loose but ingredients distributed. 

You could also try this in a mixer, but doing it by hand is pretty simple and less equipment to clean afterwards.

 This is what it should look like after you blend with your hands.

  Pour the mix onto a cutting board and compress into a mound to give you a good starting point to roll it out. Using a dough scraper you can keep edges compressed and tidy while forming the mound.

 Start rolling out from side to side and top to bottom to keep it even. Using the dough scraper to keep crumbling edges together. It's a lot of tidying edges and then rolling. 

 When you are done you should have a rectangle like this. This is about 1/2" thick. You can always do it thicker if you prefer that for your bars.

Then begin cutting into bars.  For the recipe in this post we are making 16 bars.

 

 Once bars are cut you can put them in a air-tight container to store in the fridge. Some will be a little fragile at this stage. After an hour in the fridge they will firm up and be ready to handle and EAT!

I couldn't wait and had to have a nibble when taking this picture. So nice to get a little chocolate fix and know it's not just a sugary, over processed food. Enjoy and feel satisfied!

Serving size: 1 bar, 246 calories, 19g fat, 14g carbs, 6g fiber, 5g protein.

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Whole Wheat Veggie Pizza Puffs

I saw this recipe and wanted to give it a try. It was our Sunday lunch while we watched the latest episode of The Office. Next time, I'm going to play with the fillings a bit. I'm thinking some onion and green pepper with the olives would be good and maybe a bit of oregano and/or basil in the mix. These are super easy to make and versatile. I used our homemade vegetable spaghetti sauce for dipping, instead of marinara like the recipe suggested. More veggies is a good thing :) Oh, and the other bonus to this recipe is it uses whole wheat flour instead of white. Cheers!

I got this recipe over at the Cooking with My Kid blog. Check it out! Tweet Follow @kellymedina

Sweet Christmas Graphics

I'm alive! I've been busy working on Christmas graphics and now moving on to next year holidays. I hope everyone has been doing well. Please forgive my absence.

Here are a few sets I have created for my Etsy shop. More to come.

This set makes me drool. Available here.

Cute little mish mash of Christmas elements. Available here.

This is a minty fresh set. Available here.

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Ice Cream Surprise Party Art

Seems I am on a sweets kick. My latest art set makes me want a banana split something serious :)

Available here:

Etsy Kelly Medina Studios • Ice Cream Surprise Party Art

I also made a matching paper pack to go along with it.

Etsy Kelly Medina Studios • Ice Cream Surprise Party Paper Pack

I'm going to create some stamps in this theme, as well as, collage sheets.

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I made

this and loved it. Recipe here. Tweet Follow @kellymedina

Overly Confident Ice Cream Cone

Obviously, I am on an ice cream kick this week.

The last two illustrations have been from a work project and didn't use. Tweet Follow @kellymedina

Girl + Ice cream

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New Food Blog

I was inspired by Christine to start using a blog for my food posts. Chris is going to be posting with me - he prepares most of the meals for us during the week. He loves trying new recipes which keeps it interesting. I like cooking, but I love baking. I know we won't be posting every day on the new food blog like I do on this one, but hopefully a couple times a week. Check it out - even though it is pretty bare at the moment. Tweet Follow @kellymedina

Thanksgiving

It was a busy day of prepping and cooking meals. Chris did most of the food cooking this year, I just had to pick out what I wanted (I'm pretty finicky). I just made the Apple pie and Buttermilk biscuits. The whole spread was unbelievably good - pie to come later.



Ever since I was a kid I loved cranberries and rolls. I didn't eat much else, except for mashed potatoes. So I had to take a picture of Chris's Cranberry-Ginger Relish with my biscuits. Yum!

Once we cut into the pie I will post a picture. But we are both digesting for now.

I had a wonderful quote I wanted to post, but I lost it somewhere in my emails. I am going to post that once I dig it up.

I'm off to digest, knit and watch Return of the King.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day!

And here is the pie! We had it with vanilla frozen yogurt - mmm good!



(added Dec. 3) The quote I meant to post - I finally found it!

An Anonymous 16th Century Harvest Homily:

Please be gentle with yourself and others.
We are all children of change,
And none can say why some fields blossom
While others lay brown beneath the harvest sun.

Take hope that your season will come,
Share the joy of those whose season is at hand.
Care for those around you.
Look past your differences.
Their dreams are no less than yours,
Their choices in life no more easily made.

And give.
Give in any way you can.
Give in every way you can.
Give whatever you possess.
Give from your heart.
To give is to love.
To withhold is to wither.
Care less for the size of your harvest
Than for how it is shared.
And your life will have meaning.
And your heart will have peace. Tweet Follow @kellymedina

Deliciousness

I absolutely love to bake and this love really kicks in once the Fall season starts. Something about baking brings me such peace and happiness (not just because the end product is amazing either!). I prefer it over cooking, and I like cooking. So last night I made Glazed Lemon Pound Cake with poppyseeds (2 tablespoons). It turned out sooo good. We added fresh strawberries and some whipped cream to complete our dessert - it was amazing! The recipe makes two loaves, so I took the other to work and it was giving rave reviews. Give it a try. Sorry no pictures of the whipped cream and berries, we were already eating before I could think of it :)


Chris made some Raspberry Jam today. I think the color is so beautiful that I had to take a picture. He makes such great jam! Tweet Follow @kellymedina