ths rfl cacaomachabars 2017 11 09

I'm Lisa Manzo, registered holistic nutritionist, fitness trainer, owner of

Pure Energy Wellness Lofts and author of the book Healthy is Sexy. I am so

excited to be back with you here in my kitchen. Welcome! So today I'm very

excited to share with you a very tasty and delicious recipe. This is a recipe I

often make. It's called chocolate bar, so matcha cacao chocolate bars. Yes! It is

completely made with chocolate, but real chocolate. I'm excited to share that with

you today on Real Food Live

Chocolate bars. So tasty, so delicious, and we often crave them at various times

don't we? But what if I told you that we could have something healthier and

tastier and that could actually be good for your health? Yes, I said it. Chocolate

can be good for your health. So what we're making today is chocolate matcha

bars. And you know when you think of matcha and you think of chocolate

sometimes you don't really feel like those are great combinations together. Maybe, you know, on its own but not together. But matcha and cacao are quite

bitter and it's this recipe is offset with the sweetness of the maple syrup. So

that's why this combination works so well. I actually stumbled on this recipe

because I was, you know, baking in my kitchen one afternoon. We had a little

bit of a sweet craving and we wanted something healthy, of course, and all I

had in the house was cacao, a little bit of, you know, bits and pieces, some almond

butter, some coconut oil, and matcha. And I thought, okay, let's give it a go. And so

this is how the recipe kind of created and came to life. So I'm really excited

to share that with you. And this is what's so great about trial and error

It's really about getting into your kitchen and just experimenting. This should be your area of, you know, experimenting and getting your creative

juices flowing. And I'm so happy that I get to share my kitchen with you and my

creative recipes with you as well. So like I said, today we're going to be

making these. They are so easy and so simple and they take less than six to

seven minutes to make. You know that if you've watched past Real Food Live shows

with me, you know that all my recipes are really simple and easy because life is

busy. So we need something fast and simple but we need healthy. So this is

what I'm going to show you today. So we're going to walk you through some of the ingredients that I have here. And I really want to share with you some of

the brands because I think telling you some of the brands that I use and that I

really believe in is also really important. And how easily available, readily available they are and where you can find some of those things. So first

off, I'm going to point out the raw cacao here. So raw cacao is something that I

always have in my house. It is actually a staple in my house because sometimes

I'll just quickly make up a batch of raw chocolate which is also really, really

simple. Very similar to what I'm kind of doing today. And I throw it in the

freezer, take it out and break it into pieces and then that's something that

you can leave in the freezer and take whenever you feel like you need to have

that little bit of a little boost. So raw cacao here and the brand that I use for

raw cacao is a company called Navitas. Okay, Navitas Naturals. It is a fantastic

company. It is incredibly clean. The cacao is sourced so it's all natural, very

high potent antioxidants. Something that you want to actually make sure that

you're not confusing cacao with cocoa as cocoa is highly processed. Cacao has not

been processed. It's natural and never been touched. So definitely reacts quite

differently in our bodies. When we do eat real chocolate or real cacao, it has very

positive effects on our health and we'll get into that a little bit in a little

bit. So that's one of the brands I use. For my matcha, I like to use a brand

called Organic Traditions. This is a brand that sells quite a few different

things. They also have a raw cacao as well. Great brand. Again, it's organic, very

very pure and clean. Last is I really like vanilla extract. It is another

staple in my baking drawer. And organic vanilla extract without alcohol. So

that's one thing you want to make sure that you're finding is vanilla extract without alcohol. And you can find this, any of these, in your grocery store

Usually it's kind of off on the in the healthier aisles or the healthier

section. They usually have a section for that. Maple syrup. Organic pure maple

syrup. Costco now sells this. Okay, I just just walked by the aisle the other day

and I saw it and I got very excited. Costco is a great place to find some of

your organic brands like chia seeds and hemp hearts. And in fact, I buy my

coconut oil at Costco in a very large tub. And I use it for a variety of things

So I like to buy in bulk because I use it in baking, in cooking. I use it

believe it or not, to take my makeup off. But that could be a different show. Maybe

a beauty show or something like that. But Kirkland is a great brand and they do

offer selections. So definitely something that you can look into. And then because

I wanted to add a little bit of a crunch to this chocolate bar, I decided to add

in brown rice puffs. So brown rice puffs are naturally gluten-free and the

company that I use is Nature's Path Organic. I also give these to my

daughter as her snack. So whereas you know some some mothers will give Cheerios

Nature Path Organic also offers a Kamut and brown rice blend Cheerio as well. So

there are definitely healthier options and this is something as well you can

find in your local grocery store. So these are just some of the brands I

wanted to share with you today and how easy they are to access

just while you're shopping in your grocery store. So for this recipe this is

basically all you're going to need. So I have a quarter cup of raw cacao with us

here. I have one teaspoon of pure vanilla extract. I have three

tablespoons of the pure maple syrup. So that's going to cut the bitterness of

the matcha and the cacao and that's where you're going to get the sweetness

in your chocolate here. And then I have a quarter cup of almond butter. So I really

want to you know emphasize the fact that it doesn't have to be almond butter and

really you can change up this recipe how you like it. Instead of maple syrup you

can use raw honey but if you do have a nut allergy or you want to bring your

child to school with this little treat you definitely can switch up the almond

butter for say a sunflower seed butter or a tahini anything of that sort. And if

you just don't like almond butter there's cashew butter there's Brazil nut butter you can really change up the flavors and change up the good healthy

fats you're going to be eating in this recipe. And then like I mentioned we have our high quality organic matcha green tea here and this is one

tablespoon of that. A dash of high quality sea salt or Himalayan sea salt

whatever you'd like to use. And then for our base it is half a cup of melted

coconut oil. So what I do is I'll scoop it out of my tub put it in a little pot

and then melt it on very very low for about 30 seconds and then pour it into

my measuring cup so it's melted and it's all ready to go. For this recipe we're

literally just throwing everything in this bowl mixing and that's it that's

how simple it is that's how simple you could have this treat at your

convenience whenever you need it. So I want to talk a little bit about matcha

because you might be you know on the other end saying I've never heard of

matcha green tea or I've heard of it but I don't really know much about it or it's

green and it probably smells and doesn't look good. So matcha green tea is

a Japanese green tea it is fantastic because it boosts the metabolism and it

also helps to assist detoxifying effectively and naturally so it detoxifies the body or helps to. But what's great is I absolutely love to

enjoy my matcha green tea latte in the morning. So I make this in the morning

put my matcha powder inside my cup I boil some water put a little bit of the

matcha to dissolve it and then I steam and froth up my coconut milk and I make

it into a latte and what I love about this is that it boosts my energy levels

without the effects that coffee can sometimes have in terms of headaches and

all of the other more negative effects of coffee. So matcha is great for that I

love it. Also matcha helps aiding in concentration and alertness it is very

very high in antioxidants it really has fiber and chlorophyll and vitamins so

the list of benefits for matcha do go on and on. You do definitely want to make

sure you're getting a high quality matcha because there are low quality matchas out there and make sure of course it's an organically sourced matcha

as well. So we're gonna start throwing all of this in there's really no way or

or you know right way to add in all these ingredients you just want to put

them all in into the bowl. So I just put my cacao and my pure vanilla extract my

pure maple syrup. After I do this my daughter usually likes to get her finger

and lick the maple syrup from the bowl because we just love maple syrup in our

house. Our matcha organic matcha there we go so you're just plopping them all in

we'll put our half a cup of melted coconut oil in there here. Alright this

is looking great and then our almond butter which is what I'm using today but

again you can change that up to a nut butter or seed butter of your choice

A quarter cup there we go a dash of high quality sea salt and in your one

cup of brown rice puffs for that extra crunch and so here we're going to just

mix everything into one another. The smell is so delicious so you can really

smell the bitterness of the cacao but then I also smell how sweet that pure

maple syrup is which is so tasty. So did you know how easy it is to make raw

chocolate? No need to go to the store and buy chocolate especially the sugar

chocolate the sugary I call it junk chocolate. So we're mixed in here okay I

would lick the spoon as well or my daughter would but for the sake of television I'll just keep that to myself. Then you want to grab a loaf pan because

we are going to cut these into chocolate bar size. I like to put plastic wrap on

top because it's really easy to to lift after we put it into the freezer. So I'm

gonna slowly I'm gonna slowly place the chocolate into this mold here and you're

gonna have to play around with the plastic wrap too because it'll kind of move on you but I'll show you a little trick to that that I learned trial and

error again. So just getting a spatula and making sure we get all of that

goodness out of the bowl here. Wonderful. Oh guys I wish you could be on this side

to smell how delicious this smells. I might have to take a lick I just might

The spoon of course before I put it into the sink. Wonderful. So now that we

have our chocolate here into the plastic wrap you're just gonna take your spatula

and kind of mold the chocolate to fill all the corners of this loaf pan. So this

is a loaf pan I usually use for lately it's been banana bread or pumpkin bread

or zucchini bread anything you have even if you have something that is lower or

that's square and maybe not so deep that's fine too your your bars will just

be a lot thinner which is fine. So once it's in the mold like so you're gonna

find you're gonna find that the plastic wrap will kind of fold over into the

into the chocolate you don't want that so what I do is I'll grab the back of

the plastic wrap and dip it into the chocolate from my spatula to stick it

onto that loaf pan. It's like arts and crafts here. So sticking it on there we

go. So as you can see the chocolate is now taking the mold of the loaf pan and

now I'm gonna place this chocolate in the freezer for 20 minutes so we really

need it to be very hard. Once we take it out of the freezer after 20 minutes it's

ready to be cut and once you cut it you want to store it in a airtight container

in the fridge because at room temperature it will melt. I've tried that

so definitely in the fridge. I'm gonna place this in the freezer here and so

this is what it's gonna look like once it's out of the freezer for 20 minutes

So with the plastic wrap very easily you just remove the chocolate from that wrap

so as you can tell the mold is nicely done there and with a nice long knife

you're gonna cut these into chocolate bar sizes so this will yield about eight

bars. This depends how thick you or how big you want the bars as well. So just

cutting them like so and so when they've taken that mold they're really really

easy to cut and they're not soft at all. Delicious! I love the texture of the brown rice crisps which really really

gives you that that crunch. So here your chocolate bar right here and like I said

storing them into the fridge so they're not at room temperature and there's no

way of melting is gonna save and preserve these if they last longer than

a day I tell you. I want to talk to you a little bit about chocolate because

there's a lot of back and forth it's chocolate good is it not we're talking

about real chocolate so we're talking about real cacao dark chocolate. Why does

chocolate make us makes why does chocolate make us happy? It makes us

happy because it tastes good and it also is a form of escape from our busy and

often stressed lifestyles but you know research after research has provided explanations about why chocolate makes us so happy. So the research suggests

that there are over 300 naturally occurring chemicals in chocolate that are released in the brain and it's it's connected with neurotransmitters and

these neurotransmitters that are released are you know affect our emotions and affect our mood and that's where chocolate comes in and plays a role. When

we eat chocolate endorphins are released in the brain so endorphins as we all

know or some of you may or may not know really is known to decrease both stress

and pain so chocolate this type of chocolate is more more than curing a

broken heart it's something that you can have as a treat and know that it's more

than a guilty pleasure it's something that's healthy and something that's gonna help lift our mood aid in our concentration make us feel comforted and

and make us really excited so there's no reason why we shouldn't have dark

chocolate real dark chocolate and you want to always aim for a 70% cacao in

your chocolate if you aren't deciding to make it and you're out and you just want

a little treat you want to aim for you know 70 and higher percent of cacao in

your chocolate if you are dairy-free please make sure that you are flipping

over the package to make sure that there's no dairy in the chocolate

because there are traces of dairy in some chocolate even though it does say

real cacao so just be mindful of that and there are some great great raw

chocolate brands out there one that I love because it's local is Giddy Yo-Yo

okay that's a raw cacao chocolate brand that is absolutely fantastic and it

definitely is a gluten-free and just know that if you're getting into this

raw cacao phase right now and I congratulate you for getting into it

because you're gonna love it and you're never gonna go back to the sugary stuff but know that there's a transition there with your taste buds so as you

start to eat the raw cacao in the beginning it becomes you know it's

really bitter but the more and more you start to train your taste buds to move

away from very sugary foods this becomes very satisfying and enough sugar is all

you'll need in this so I hope you really enjoyed today's show I was really

excited to share this really simple simple recipe with you I promised it was

fast I promised it was simple so I want you all to go and make this recipe and I

want you to comment on our page and tell me I'm watching I'm responding I want

you to tell me how much you loved it you didn't love it any constructive feedback

and any maybe you know alterations that you made because I learned from you as

much as you learned from me so have a great day and if you can tune in to any

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