If you’ve been reading my blog for a while now, you might think that I only eat low-calorie, fresh, whole foods and that sugar or processed foods never pass my lips.
But let’s be real: that couldn’t possibly be true – I’m a human being, after all!
(Okay, it’s kind of true, but only about the processed foods.)
Just because I decided I wanted to eat meals that were primarily made from whole foods I bought and prepared myself doesn’t mean I wanted to give up eating anything tasty. It just means I’m always on the lookout for healthier alternatives for my vices.
In fact, one of those vices kept me on a quest to find a healthier way to make it, because I simply couldn’t give it up.
It was chocolate peanut better bars.
When I was kid, I would grab the peanut butter, some chocolate chips, a spoon, and just eat away. (And, as a kid, I mean until I hit my 30s….)
As you know, I started my clean eating journey to get rid of migraines and fatigue, and the recipes I was finding for this treat online were loaded with white sugar, mass-produced peanut butter, and highly-processed chocolate. I was making my own, but I wasn’t happy. (Adding a cup of white sugar and then another cup of powdered sugar is both unnecessary and unhealthy. The chocolate chips and graham crackers already have sugar in them!)
So, I started to play around with the recipe.
First, I lowered the amount of sugar to a quarter cup. (I eventually removed it altogether.)
Then, I started working on the peanut butter. Store-bought peanut butter is loaded with sugar and additives, so I began using pure nut butters. Now, I make my own almond butter, or if I’m time crunched, I’ll use all-natural nut butter. (You can even use seed butter!)
Next, I moved on to the chocolate. I use a blend of chocolate semi-sweet and milk chocolate. I mix these together over heat and add some almond milk to make a ganache I put into the molds. (Sounds fancy, but it’s super easy and quick.)
Finally, I changed out the graham crackers to ground flax seeds mixed with protein powder. You don’t get all the wheat and sugar and as an added bonus, you get a protein boost!
After I finished all my tinkering, and got a recipe I was happy with, I tried it out on group of people ranging from kids to gym goers. They all loved them and didn’t notice the changes!
See? It’s super easy to make your favourite guilty pleasures healthier just by making small changes!
My Chocolate Nut Butter Bar Recipe
Here is my latest Chocolate Nut Butter Bar Recipe:
Use the perfect petites pan to make 30, 2 tablespoon portions (or any silicone portioned bar pan).
1 cup homemade almond butter or any all-natural nut butter
1/3 cup Ground flax seeds
1/2 scoop Vanilla protein powder
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (pure chocolate)
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips (pure chocolate)
2 tbsp almond milk
- Mix together almond butter (or your choice of all-natural nut butter) with ground flax seeds and Vanilla protein powder. Set aside.
- In a metal bowl, mix and warm up over a water bath semi-sweet chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, and almond milk. (Alternate: In a microwave safe bowl mix and heat on low in 10 15 second increments until melted and mixed.)
- Coat the bottom and sides of the perfect petites pan with the chocolate mixture. Drop 1 teaspoon of nut butter mixture into each pan section.
- Cover nut butter with the remaining chocolate mixture.
- Freeze for 30 minutes and enjoy!
Try this recipe out at home and head over to my Instagram to tell me how it went! I would love to see the personal twist you put on these tasty bars!
