Chocolate Is Healthy

You’ve probably come across various ways to consume raw chocolate. Most common are cacao nibs and raw chocolate bars. But have you tried raw chocolate powder?

Many people aren’t quite sure what to do with raw chocolate powder but it’s an incredibly versatile ingredient. It’s made from raw chocolate, and because of this, it doesn’t contain high levels of caffeine you find in processed chocolate powder. It’s typically vegan-friendly and organic, and a great source of minerals such as magnesium, copper, and calcium.  It’s also rich in antioxidants.

Raw chocolate powder should have a rich, smooth effect on any recipe. You can mix raw chocolate powder into smoothies, yogurt or ice cream. Use it to make a raw chocolate (or non-raw chocolate) cake, or raw chocolate bars
or truffles.

Look for raw chocolate powder made with premium cacao beans and grown with sustainable farming methods. You can buy raw chocolate powder in 1lb and 5lb bags at your local health food grocery store, or check out
Navitas Naturals Cacao Power Raw Powder at this online health food sellers.

Have you ever dreamed of being a chocolatier?  Treehugger posted a great review of the Navitas Naturals Organic Chocolate Kit.  This looks like a fantastic gift for the chocolate lover with delicious results. And, Navitas Naturals Chocolate Kits are 100% organic, kosher, vegan, gluten-free, and raw.

The DIY chocolate kit requires no special equipment. The process involves some simple slicing, melting, mixing and freezing, and your chocolates are done in minutes!

The kit contains all organic, raw superfoods including premium cacao, maca, lucuma and mesquite.

Here’s an excerpt from the review:

“All I needed was two smallish bowls, a spoon, a knife, and ice cube tray. Shave and stir, drop in the super berries, pour into ice tray molds, slide into the freezer to set. Within minutes (just like the box promised). Pop them out and there were a dozen perfect little dark chocolate candies. Move out of the way, Whitman’s. Forget, Frangos. So long, Sees. And bye-bye to pre-packaged natural equivalents.

For ten bucks and ten minutes, you, too, can be a chocolatier. No one will guess it’s so easy. As I said, I’m predisposed to chocolate, so when I taste tested one and liked it, and gobbled another, I recognized my bias. The chocolate tasting party would be the judges. “You made these!?” they exclaimed.”

DIY Superfood Chocolates: Good and Good for You, Too? : TreeHugger.

There’s an excellent post over at Raw Epicurean about our favorite subject, raw cacao.  It’s a very straightforward introduction to cacao, where it comes from, how it’s processed and what it tastes like.  It also provides an overview of the nutritional value of cacao, without getting too scientific on us.

Even more exciting, they have a contest going on this month where you can win cacao products, so check it out!

She also provides this great recipe for chocolate sauce:

Chocolate Sauce

Make this sauce ahead; keep refrigerated up to two weeks.

1/2 cup cacao nibs powder
1/2 cup agave, or sweetener of choice [adjust amount as needed]
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoons organic vanilla extract

Blend all ingredients together in a food processor until smooth.

Makes 3/4 cups

Cacao :: Herb of the Month : Raw Epicurean.

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.