Homemade Dark Chocolate Almond Joy

Dark Chocolate Almond Joy Bites

-Kaliste Kimball

If you know me, you know I am a chocoholic. Almond joy is one of my favorite candies, so I decided to make a much healthier version with probably a tenth of the sugar that's in the actual candy itself, and used dark chocolate so I can say it's good for the heart! Almonds - yum. Dark chocolate - yum. Coconut - yum. 

Makes 24 servings (24 almond joy candies)

130 calories each

Ingredients

12 oz bittersweet chocolate baking squares (2- 6 oz boxes bittersweet baking squares)

1/4 + 2 tbsp coconut manna

3/4 cup shredded coconut

*Coconut manna is coconut meat without any added ingredients. It is powdered, but the fat content is high so it has the texture of  nut butter when at room temperature. If you heat it up it become creamy. You can purchase it at Whole Foods or at select other locations, or online. If you don't have a Whole Foods or health food store near you, it is definitely worth ordering online. It has so many different uses and is delicious in itself. It is a must-have for my pantry!*

Instructions

Put mini cupcake wrappers inside a mini muffin pan. Put 6 oz of bittersweet chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and microwave on high in 30 second increments until chocolate is completely melter, stirring in between. Spoon a small amount of chocolate into the bottom  of each wrapper until chocolate is evenly distributed in all 24 wrappers. Gently shake your muffin pan from side to side so the chocolate settles evenly. Place into freezer for 5-10 minutes so the chocolate hardens.

While chocolate is hardening, put coconut manna in microwave for 30 seconds until soft and melted. Add coconut manna, shredded coconut, and any remaining chocolate from your melted bowl and stir until shredded coconut is covered with chocolatey manna mixture. 

Take chocolate filled wrappers out of the freezer and pinch small amounts of coconut mixture into cups, pressing down and flattening with finger tips. When coconut mixture is evenly distributed and pressed down, put remaining 6 oz of chocolate into microwave safe bowl and microwave until fully melted, stirring every 30 seconds. Spoon remaining chocolate onto coconut mixture until evenly distributed. Again, gently shake muffin pan from side to side until the chocolate evens out and the tops of the candies are smooth. Gently press one almond into the top of each chocolate candy. Place into freezer for 10-15 minutes until candies are fully hardened.

Take candy out of freezer and unwrap. Enjoy!

Summer Orange Lemon-Limeade

Summer Orange Lemon-Limeade

- Kaliste Kimball

This really isn't a complicated recipe, more like an idea for those who just like a simple, refreshing drink on a hot day. And it is DELICIOUS. 

I use stevia to sweeten it, and we have one of those huge bulk bags of stevia in the raw. It would take far too long if I used all the individual packets. And it would end up being more expensive.

Ingredients

Three lemons

Two limes

One medium-sized orange

1/4 cup-1/2 cup stevia to taste

Instructions

Slice lemons, limes, into 4 vertical slices and squeeze into a regular sized pitcher until no more juice will come out of the slices. Add a full tray of ice. Fill pitcher with water. Add stevia and stir with a wooden spoon. Add a few slices of your citrus fruit to garnish if you wish. Enjoy!

Skinny Girl Hawaiian Pizza

Skinny Girl Hawaiian Pizza

- Kaliste Kimball

Per Serving

Calories: 231

Fat: 9.38 g

Carbs: 23 g

Protein: 12.5 g

Makes 1 serving

Ingredients

1 small whole wheat tortilla

2 tbsp tomato sauce

1 oz fresh mozzarella cheese

1 1/2 slices deli sliced ham

1/8 cup crushed pineapple

1 tbsp bacon bits

garlic powder

oregano

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Spread tomato sauce over your tortilla. (I used Mission Artisan Multigrain small tortillas - 100 calories each.) Slice 1 oz of fresh mozzarella and break up into small pieces around your tortilla. Spread 1/8 cup pineapple across your tortilla. Rip sliced ham into small pieces and spread across tortilla. Sprinkle bacon bits around your mini pizza. Moderately sprinkle garlic powder and oregano on top of your pizza. 

Place your pizza on a baking sheet and slide into the oven for ten minutes. After ten minutes have passed, turn your oven on broil and let it bake for another 5-7 minutes. 

Enjoy!

This is paired nicely with a side of veggies of your choice for a full meal, or eat the pizza alone as a snack.

Eggplant with Buttermilk Sauce

Eggplant with Buttermilk Sauce

Kaliste Kimball

This is a tweak from a recipe I found in a cookbook. I personally am not an eggplant person, but my mother and my boyfriend both are obsessed with it, and as soon as he heard about this he begged me to make it. I changed some things up from the original recipe like I always do, and it turned out to be a HUGE hit in this house. It's definitely making its place in our family cookbook. And it is PACKED with fiber and antioxidants. Did you know half of an eggplant has over 9 grams of fiber? Yum. 

Ingredients

For Eggplant

2 large and long eggplants

1/3 cup olive oil

3/4 tsp thyme leaves

lemon

1 pomegranate

coarse sea salt

black pepper

1/4 tsp oregano

1/4 tsp thyme leaves

Sauce

9 tbsp buttermilk

1/2 cup 0% fat Greek yogurt

1 1/2 tbsp olive oil plus a drizzle to finish

4 small garlic cloves, crushed

pinch of salt

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the eggplants in half lengthways, cutting straight through the green stalk (the stalk is for the look, don't eat it). Use a small sharp knife to make three or four parallel incisions in the cut side of each eggplant half, without cutting through to the skin. Repeat at a 45 degree angle to get a diamond shaped pattern. 

Place the eggplant halves, cut-side up, on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush them with the olive oil, and keep on brushing until all of the oil has been absorbed by the flesh. Sprinkle with 3/4 tsp thyme leaves, salt, and pepper. (My two favorite types of salt are pink Himalayan sea salt or black Hawaiian sea salt. They have more of a salty taste than regular sea salt.) Take a small food grater and lightly grate the skin of the lemon onto the eggplants for a lemon zest. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, at which point the flesh should be soft, flavorful and nicely browned. Remove from the oven and allow to cool down completely.

While the eggplants are in the oven, cut the pomegranate into two halves horizontally. Hold one half over a bowl, with the cut side against your palm, and use the back of a wooden spoon or rolling pin to gently knock on the pomegranate skin. Continue beating with increasing power until the seeds start coming out naturally and falling through your fingers into a bowl. Once all are there, sift through the seeds to remove any bits of white skin or membrane. 

To make the sauce, whisk together all of the ingredients. Taste for seasoning, then keep cold until needed.

To serve, spoon plenty of buttermilk sauce over the eggplant halves without covering the stalks. Sprinkle remaining thyme and oregano and plenty of pomegranate seeds on top, and finish with a drizzle of olive oil.

Quick Tuna Salad Pitas

Quick Tuna Salad Pita Pockets

If you know me, you know I'm always on the go and looking for quick meals that are super healthy for you. This is one of them. It only takes a few minutes to whip together, and it's delicious and not that messy. This recipe goes great with a piece of fruit or some veggies on the side.

Makes 2 servings

Per Serving:

224 calories

9.9 g fat

16.24 g carbs

18.16 g protein

Ingredients:

4 Trader Joe's mini whole-wheat pita pockets

1 3 oz can Starkist chunk light tuna in water

1 tbsp Kraft mayo with olive oil

2 hard boiled eggs

1 1/2 large dill pickles

Dash of salt

Instructions:

Dice eggs and pickles and put into a bowl. Add tuna and mayo and mix all together. Add a dash of salt. Put tuna salad into pita pockets. Eat.

The Perfect Sweet Potato Fries

No-Burn Baked Sweet Potato Fries

-Kaliste Kimball

 

I've always loved sweet potato fries, but have always struggled to get them perfect. All of the recipes I have found online have always been so frustrating, instructing me to take them out of  oven halfway and flip them. Every. Single. One. After flipping every one, I always felt like flipping them again...perhaps flipping off to be a little more exact. There are so many and it is so time consuming! And they never turned out how I wanted them. They would either be burnt or too soggy. I always wondered if there was a quick, easy, no-hassle way I could make perfect sweet potato fries, so I started experimenting. The solution I came up with is no-fail. Use a wire cooling rack. If you don't have a wire cooling rack (used for placing cakes/cookies/etc. on to cool after baking), I highly suggest you go to the nearest Walmart, Target, or grocery store and make the investment. So worth it. Just make sure to get the kind that isn't coated with paint or any type of material. You just want regular metal. Now for the recipe!

Ingredients: 

1 to 2 sweet potatoes or yams 

1/8 cup virgin or extra virgin coconut oil

Sea salt

Tools:

Large baking sheet

Plastic ziploc bag (1 quart size, but 1 gallon size will work)

Wire cooling rack

Knife

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place large wire cooling rack or two small wire cooling racks onto large baking sheet.

Rinse sweet potatoes. Slice the potatoes into thin chips. Put 1/8 cup coconut oil over stove to melt or place in microwave for 15 seconds, or until melted into a liquid. Place the sweet potato chips and melted oil into a plastic bag, zip the bag, and shake until all chips are lightly coated with the oil.

Place the coated sweet potato chips onto the wire cooling rack (which is on top of the baking sheet), sprinkle with freshly grated sea salt, and bake for 24-30 minutes or until chips are a dark orange color and look crispy. 

Simple enough? Enjoy!

The Magic Coconut

 

The Truths and Fallacies of Coconut

-Kaliste Kimball

 

In today's world of health and nutrition, there is a lot of controversy over coconut, but let me ease your fears. Although coconut contains saturated fat, it is possibly one of the best things you could ever ingest. But wait! How can it be healthy if all it contains fat...and to be more precise, saturated fat?

Hold your horses and don't jump to conclusions. Don't fall into the misconceptions and mass hysteria about the dangers of all fat or of all saturated fat. Although it's true a person shouldn't eat TOO much fat, people need fat to live and function properly. Fat cushions and protects our organs. It is incorporated into our cell membranes. It is used as an energy source. It makes certain vitamins (that we NEED)- like vitamin A and D- available to us. Naturally occurring saturated fat in eggs, butter, and coconut/coconut oil is nothing to fear, especially compared to trans fats or hydrogenated butters or oils. Trans fat and anything hydrogenated = bad news.

First of all you have to consider that our ancestors have been eating these naturally occurring saturated fats for centuries, possibly even millenniums before us, and have gone "surprisingly" without cardiovascular disease, cancer, and other types of degenerative diseases. You didn't see Pacific Islanders whose diets consisted highly or mainly of coconut and coconut oil with coronary heart disease - in fact they were and remain to be an overall healthy population of people. It isn't until this past century or so that we see an ever-rising trend of these types of diseases. Does this have any correlation with the consumption of naturally occuring fatty acids or could it possibly have a correlation with processed foods and hydrogenated fats? It is certainly easier to blame the healthy things and reach for the ever-so-convenient, processed, artificially created food products that are cheap and readily available for consumption. Let's face the truth and stop living in denial. Getting fat from coconut oil won't hurt your body. Getting fat from processed and/or artificial "food" will.

Fats and oils are essentially made up of smaller molecules of fatty acids. Fatty acids are classified into three different lengths- short, medium, and long. The fatty acids in coconut and coconut oil are medium-chained, also knows as MCT's (medium chained triglycerides).

Medium chained triglycerides are far from their saturated long-chain triglyceride cousins as far as body processing is concerned. First they are easier to metabolize, and secondly your body prefers to use these saturated MCT's as energy rather than storing it around your hips and your middle. Thirdly, the MCT's in coconut are mainly (around 50%) composed of a particular fatty acid called lauric acid which performs as an antiviral and antimicrobal. Even Physicians' Desk Reference published that MCT's may be helpful for some cancers and have positive effects on immunity. Another 6 to 7% of the fats are an MCT called capric acid. This is formed into monocaprin in the human body, which has also been shown to have antiviral effects and is being tested for effects against herpes and for antibacterial effects against chlamydia and other sexually transmitted bacteria.

That being said, you don't have to suffer from any of these diseases or conditions to benefit from the wonderful, magical coconut. If you're looking for a food that tastes delicious AND can enhance your immune system, open up your minds and your kitchens to coconut. I use it for everything. Virgin coconut oil, coconut manna, (unsweetened) coconut meat, coconut milk...the options are endless, as are the uses.

I use (virgin or extra virgin...do not buy refined!) coconut oil for cooking and baking because it has a high smoking point (350 degrees). You can use it for a hair treatment for shiny locks. I have friends that rub it on their faces as moisturizers to keep their breakouts down. I use coconut manna for smoothies and as a spread for my toast. I use coconut meat for baking. Coconut milk is an excellent way to restock on electrolytes after an intense workout.

So basically...what are you waiting for??