As I mentioned in my previous post, I successfully introduced cacao after 2 years on SCD. Although cacao isn’t SCD legal, I feel good about eating it because it’s chock-full of antioxidants. Chocolate is really one of the handful of foods I truly missed since starting SCD, so I’m very thankful I can enjoy some now. I love having it after dinner as a treat—I love the slightly bitter and mildly sweet taste of it. The funny thing is that pre-SCD, I was a milk chocolate fan and a dark chocolate hater but since then, I’ve really grown a deep love and appreciation for dark chocolate. Needless to say, milk chocolate has taken the back burner. I won’t eat it because it includes milk and refined sugar, among other things, and I stay away from both of those, even now that I have advanced further into SCD. SCD has taught me the fundamentals of healthy eating, and going back to refined sugar isn’t an option for me. Plus, dark chocolate is so much healthier and better for you, and it doesn’t upset my stomach, which is always a win-win situation in my book.
I do want to mention that I only eat cacao with either nothing added to it or with honey added to it; I want to stick as close as possible to SCD, even though I am eating a non-SCD legal food item. When I first sought to introduce cacao, I was on the hunt for a wholesome product, and that’s when I came across a brand called Honey Mamas. They sell fudge-like chocolate bars made with cocoa powder, which are only sweetened with honey. I was buying them for $5.99 a bar, and the bar is pretty small, though worth it to me for a treat I wasn’t able to have for 2 years. I have a friend who is also on SCD and who recently introduced cacao into her diet, so I told her about Honey Mamas. She told me she had actually been making her own chocolate for weeks! I was amazed because I always thought making chocolate was a complicated process but after she shared her recipe with me, I realized just how easy it truly is. All you do is basically mix a few ingredients together, pour your chocolate mixture into a chocolate mold or on parchment paper, freeze for 20 minutes, and you have chocolate! This is the chocolate mold I used that I bought on Amazon; you get 5 right now for $8.99. Below is her recipe. If you’re on Instagram, be sure to give her a follow at @abundance_of_honeysticks. She shares a ton of incredible SCD legal recipes.
Ingredients:
- 2 tbsp coconut oil, melted
- 2 tbsp honey
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract (I used 1 tsp because I really love vanilla, so feel free to use more)
- 1/2 cup cacao powder
- 1 tbsp nuts, chopped (optional)
- Sea salt flakes (I used this one from Amazon)
Preparation:
Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl, sprinkle sea salt flakes on chocolate mold (if using a mold), pour in chocolate mold or on parchment paper, freeze for 20 minutes, and enjoy! It’s really that simple.
I made this first bar without any nuts. I also added a few drops of peppermint extract.
For this second bar, I added a few chopped pistachios, shredded unsweetened coconut, and cacao nibs.
Look how beautiful these bars look! They look like something fancy you would buy at the store. Best of all, it’s so much cheaper to make your own chocolate, and you know exactly what’s going in your product, which also means you have the freedom of controlling your ingredients. You can create so many different variations of chocolate bars by using different extracts, spices, nuts, etc. The possibilities are truly endless. The consistency of these bars are fudge-like and decadent, hence, the decadent chocolate bar recipe name. Even though they taste decadent, they are pretty low calorie (provided that you don’t finish the whole bar in one sitting!) at 22 calories per square. You can store them in the fridge but I like storing mine in the freezer.
I hope you make these chocolate bars and enjoy them as much as I have been.
Nutrition facts per serving (serves 24): 22 calories, 1.3 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 0.3 g protein, 2.4 g carbs, 0.7 g fiber, 1.4 g sugar
Sara's Eats 