Chocolate Is Healthy

We found this killer list of delicious chocolate gifts including bars, truffles and even chocolate spa treatments.   While we can’t say that every item on this list is healthy, there are some wonderful options either on their own or to create a chocolate gift basket.

Here are a couple of our healthier chocolate favorites:

Alter Eco Dark Cacao Chocolate

“Alter-Eco is a San Francisco based gourmet food company that offers a full line of Fair Trade gourmet chocolate. The ingredients used in the chocolates are sourced from marginalized farming cooperatives in the global south – providing fair wages, direct trade and funding for community development, scholarships, women’s empowerment programs and more. The company offers a unique variety of chocolate bars crafted with passion by a master chocolatier in Switzerland from all natural ingredients and Fair Trade Certified ingredients. Alter-Eco’s Dark Cacao Chocolate blends a fine dark chocolate (73% cocoa) with crunchy nibs of roasted Organic cacao beans—the perfect balance of bitter and sweet! The chocolate is both Fair Trade Certified and USDA certified organic. To make this chocolate, Alter-Eco uses the finest ingredients harvested by the members of the El Ceibo cooperative located in the heart of the Bolivian Amazon who use sustainable farming methods that preserve the local agricultural biodiversity. www.altereco-usa.com

Navitas Naturals Make-Your-Own Organic Chocolate Superfood Kits

Navitas Naturals is making it easy for people to bring home the art of chocolate making with their innovative new Organic Superfood Chocolate Kits. Available in three delicious organic superfood varieties – Goji Berry, Cacao Nib and Goldenberry. Each fun and unique Kit creates 12 organic chocolates. Navitas Naturals Organic Superfood Chocolate Kits are full of healthy antioxidants, and these treats can be prepared in just minutes. In addition to the Kit ingredients, the only other items needed to complete the easy recipe are a knife, a small bowl, a large bowl and an ice cube tray. Each Organic Superfood Chocolate Kit contains raw: organic cacao butter, organic cacao powder, organic mesquite, organic lucuma, organic maca and the specific organic superfood which is featured in the chewy center of the chocolates (Goji Berry, Cacao nib, or Goldenberry).”

Chocolate Gifts – Chocolate Gift Guide for 2009.

Here’s yet another wonderful recipe using raw dark chocolate, this time in a powder form.  It’s combined with fresh blueberries for an amazing dessert that’s an antioxidant joyride!  It’s sweetened by the natural fruit flavors of blueberries and dates, as well as agave nectar.

Raw Blueberry Chocolate Pie – Filling from Shazzie and David Wolfe’s Naked Chocolate Book, Crust from Nomi Shannon’s The Raw Gourmet

Pie Crust:

1 1/4 Cup Organic Raw Almonds (Soaked)
6 Organic Dates
1 Tbsp Water
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla
Dash of Cinnamon

Pie Filling:

2 Cups Organic Raw Cashews
2 Cups Fresh Organic Blueberries
2 Tablespoons Raw Agave Nectar
2 Tablespoons of Raw Cacao Powder

Instructions: Put all pie crust ingredients into a food processor or Vitamix and blend. Press into a pie dish and dehydrate for 4-6 hours. Put all pie filling ingredients into your Vitamix and blend. (Pretty simple right?) Put pie filling into pie crust once it’s dehydrated and put in the freezer for 1 hour. You can keep it in the freezer for a while, just make sure that if you don’t serve it within the hour, that you take it out and let it warm up for 30-45 minutes before serving!

Enjoy!

How Raw Blueberry Chocolate Pie Is Like a Gateway Drug… In a Good Way – The Renegade Health Show Episode #32 | The Renegade Health Show – Fun and Educational TV on Raw Food, Vegan Diet, Healthy Living.

These Raw-Cacao Brittles are made by hand. First each batch of raw cacao is slowly ground with other high quality ingredients; this process takes about a week to get the right smoothness and consistency without heating the mixture over 115 degrees Fahrenheit.

Then the chocolate mixture is tempered and added to most heavenly fruits and nuts.

Each bite is a smooth, deeply flavorful, divine indulgence. The quality and nutrient content along with an extremely high ORAC* value – OVER 13,700 PER PACKAGE – make this exquisite chocolate the healthiest chocolate alive!
Divine Organics Sacred Cacao Golden Princess Brittle

Vegan food blog Cruelty Free Kitchen shares two wonderful cookie recipes, 100% vegan, that incorporate cacao nibs.  If you haven’t heard us go on about cacao nibs before, here’s the scoop: One of the best ways to consume organic raw cacao is in the form of cacao nibs. Similar to chocolate chips, they are great as an addition to trail mix, yogurt or blended into a chocolate shake. They are unroasted and often unsweetened but taste like true chocolate.  And perfect, we’ve learned, to add to cookies. read more »

Let’s be real.  There’s healthy chocolate and there’s chocolate that isn’t so healthy.  While  we enjoy both kinds, here’s an overview of the best ways to each chocolate. Each maintains the nutritionally-rich and complex properties raw chocolate contains. read more »