Good Morning!
Psalm 34:8
New International Version (NIV)
8 Taste and see that the Lord is good;
blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.
What a beautiful time of year! The trees and flowers growing and sprouting and bringing color back into the world, plus the animals and birds are prolific and vocal, the smells that fill the air… cut grass, Lilacs, barbecue… mmmm mmmm good.
The last few months have been tough life-wise and I have been trying to settle into a routine for eating. My Cleanse Eat Treat and Celebrate (Cleanse ETC) were going well, except that the celebrations began to become the norm! One of my mentors, Zig Ziglar, said something once that made an impact on me… he said “Be careful of exceptions, for they quickly become the rule.”
So I had acquired great habits of eating more raw food, trying new recipes, making a menu and planning and then I went to South Africa! But when I got back, I got back on the straight and narrow, and then life began to settle in and chips and chocolate, cookies and cakes began to look more exciting again. BUT when I ate them I felt AWFUL! HORRIBLE! So my first instinct was to feel sorry for myself…
It NEVER works. Don’t even go there! I went back to the early emails from My Busy Healthy Life and began to look again at some of the things I do and why I do them. Water was not a problem, but the sugar and the carbs and the treats which are laden with chemicals and bad fats and sugar and gluten as well as the meat! And then, with the inspiration of my daughter, I decided to try to set aside 3 weeks again and eat 75% raw, 25% cooked and eliminate the 10 offensive foods. ( Animal protein, Dairy, Soya, Eggs, Chemicals, Sugar,
Celeste has no lack for yummy treats and there were certain things that the family, especially my husband, wanted to eat, so I got thinking… We can eat good sugars like raw honey, pure maple syrup, stevia or palm sugar and we can have good fats like organic coconut oil and avocado and cocoa powder is acceptable too. You see, I have been getting him to stay off gluten and sugar and refined carbs. It is making a difference for sure, but he is not convinced yet and he keeps hankering after Oh Henry Bars and Chocolate covered Cherry Balls… I need to fulfill his desires and make this worthwhile for him.
So I dug around in my freezer… that is where I keep my raw nuts so that they stay fresh… and found a mix of nuts and seeds. I put a half a cup into a bowl. Then I dug around in the fridge and found some almond butter… better choice than peanut butter and just as yummy. A good tablespoon worth got plopped in. Let me think… there is a kind of caramel in an Oh Henry Bar, so I dig around in the cupboard and find some strawberry honey, raw of course, from a local farm here in Ontario, a good teaspoonful of that goes into my mix. Mix and stir, sniff and taste! MMMMMM! It needs a little crunch too, so I dug around in my cupboard and found some Quinoa puffs(which I found in the Bulk Barn) and stirred in about 4 tablespoons too.
In the meantime, on my warming pad on the stove, I have a bowl with a tablespoon to 2 of coconut oil melting, along with a heaping tablespoon of raw honey and one of cocoa powder as well. Mix and stir, mix and stir.
Then I took some mini loaf pans I have and cut and lined them with parchment paper. I plopped a little of the chocolate mix into the bottom (tip: keep it on the warmth while making it or the oil separates out and it doesn’t work well) and then plopped about a third of the mix into the chocolate and then drizzled a little more chocolate over and into the freezer it went. I made 3 of these and a few minutes later presented him with this…
Does it look perfect? No! Does it taste perfect? Absolutely! Try it yourself. Tweak it to meet your needs and call it whatever you want. We went with Oh Barbara Bar!
How good it is to be able to satisfy the needs of my loved ones and know that I am helping them on their pathway to health as well.
Blessings till the next time… BB