The Perfect healthy Treat!

I feel like summer doesn’t officially end for me until I can no longer sit outside without a jacket. Being busier than usual with the kids, work, and my doula training - I’ve been scheduling in breaks for Me Time. Sometimes they are 10 minutes, sometimes 1 minute. Here’s why.

Truthfully, I’d work all day if I could - because I am lucky that I love what I do. Coaching and content creation about wellbeing really does make me happy. 

But, like all of us - I need to always do a better job of setting boundaries and taking time out to be. I always tell my clients that - you can’t continue to learn and create and grow and enjoy life unless you are actually living it. And with coaching - I won’t have any information to continue to share or programs to offer unless I am experiencing life. From life experience comes the next steps. Long story short - we must take time to BE present!

One way I do this is to sit outside with a snack - OFF of the phone. :) If you’ve been here a while, you already know this about me! I prefer to create something myself when Graham goes down for a nap, or the kids go to sleep - because I have a particular taste for what I want. And I enjoy being creative in the kitchen. 

I recently found these Whole Fruit bars at the grocery store and thought they would make the perfect foundation for a creative snack. It’s made with chunks of real fruit, there are organic options, dairy free, gluten free, and peanut free - so pretty amazing for you or the kids! While the taste is great on it’s own, I really love including chocolate if I’m going to go for a treat - and definitely love to play with texture by way of an added crunch.

I thought - “boy, these would really be great as little cubes” - pop a few into dark chocolate with nuts and vanilla ice cream and enjoy them in the sun for a few minutes? Right?! And if you can’t sneak away on your own - these are perfect little bites for the kids, too!

So that’s what I did. That’s often how all of my recipe development starts. I think through the experience of eating and then break down the components and put the puzzle together. Here: creamy (vanilla non-dairy ice cream), crunchy (chopped nuts), tart (Whole Fruit pop), chocolate (dark chocolate).

I’d love for you to try this yourself! I’m including the recipe below, with variations on how you can make it your own. I store them in a little glass container in my freezer (on top of a piece of parchment paper) and take out a few each time I want a snack. Until I run out and make another batch!

Ingredients:

Whole Fruit bars (I used Black Cherry!)

Dark chocolate (or milk chocolate, or white chocolate - whatever you like)

Coconut oil

Chopped nuts of choice (almonds, cashews, pistachios

Vanilla ice cream of choice (I chose a non-dairy option)

1. The first thing you will want to do is to chop the Whole Fruit bar into tiny cubes. Do this quickly, but safely :) - and place the cubes on top of a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Do the same thing with some ice cream. I used a little ¼ tsp spoon and made little scoops of ice cream. Kind of attach the ice cream to the popsicle and put them on the cookie sheet to re-freeze. When you have a bunch (I do 2-3 bars at a time), put this back in the freezer so that the cubes/cream freeze all the way around in their new shape. 

2. While they both re-freeze, you can make some melted chocolate. For this - you have two options - you can melt it in the microwave on 30 second intervals or you will boil water in a small pot and create a double boiler (google this if you’ve never done it!). You only need a few inches of water - I usually fill it about 1/4 of the way. Once it is boiling - put a glass bowl on top of the pot so it is not touching the boiling water and turn the heat to low, and add a bar of dark chocolate (or about a cup of chocolate chips) and 2 tablespoons or so of coconut oil (this gives it a nice texture). Honestly, I kind of guess here until I have enough chocolate and it looks nice! Keep stirring this overtop of the boiling water until everything melts nicely and take it off of the heat.

3. Let the chocolate cool a bit but not harden. Make sure no water comes in contact with it, or it will seize up on you and become unusable! Chop up your nuts of choice and have them ready in a bowl. The key here is to have your chocolate and topping ready to go when the frozen components come out of the freezer. You will want to work quickly.

4. When it’s ready - get your Whole Fruit cubes and ice cream dollops out of the freezer. Dip the cube/cream one at a time into the melted chocolate and place back onto the parchment paper. Do this quickly so everything doesn't melt!

5. Sprinkle on your crushed nuts, and put the sheet back into the freezer until the chocolate is solid. Once it is solid, you can EAT THEM :) or transfer to a storage container for safe keeping. Enjoy!

This post is sponsored by Whole Fruit, but all opinions are my own. Thank you all for your continued support!