Birds' Nest Easter Macaroons

Another Easter treat here, this time featuring coconut, macnuts, and chocolate. Name a better trio. I'll wait.

These delicate coconut macaroon nests are the perfect lightly sweet, all-natural treat that you have just enough time to make in time for tomorrow, because they are so. simple! They're so cute and impressive, no one will know it took less than 20 minutes from start to finish to put these little nests together. Plus, they're entirely vegan so long as you use vegan chocolate, so they're safe and fun for even those with dairy and egg allergies to enjoy.

Bird's Nest Easter Macaroons

20 minutes

Makes 12 macaroons

1.5 cups unsweetened dessicated coconut

3 tbsp agave or maple syrup

1.5 tbsp melted coconut oil

1 tsp coconut milk

1 tsp spirulina powder

¼ tsp vanilla extract

12 raw macadamia nuts

2 tbsp vegan dark chocolate

Preheat oven to 350° and grease a baking sheet with coconut oil.

Add all ingredients to the base of a blender or food processor and pulse until the coconut shreds are consistently green and everything sticks together loosely, like rice.

If you're using a blender, this will probably take a little extra work on your part to shake things up and mix the ingredients with a spoon to ensure that everything gets hit by the blades evenly.

Using a round tablespoon measure, scoop and gently pack the mixture, depositing onto the sheet pan. Using your thumb or a ½ teaspoon measurer, gently press on the top of each mound to make an indent. You might have to re-pack the nests a little, but I found that they kept their shape pretty well.

Bake for 8 minutes, or until the bottoms of the macaroons are toasty brown. Your kitchen will smell amazing.

While the macaroons cool, melt the dark chocolate using 15-second intervals in the microwave. When melted, dip one side of the macadamia nuts into the chocolate and place into the indent on each macaroon. The chocolate helps the macnuts stick to the macaroons and makes them that much tastier.

Kids will love the fun, springy green colors these get from the spirulina, and they might even enjoy helping to make the nests!

For those with nut allergies, leave out the macnuts and just use chocolate instead.

You can also skip the nest-making and simply bake these as mounds, drizzling chocolate over the tops after baking.

Happy Easter!

Sweet Saturday - Psychedelicious Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Nicecream

I'm well aware that the past several recipes I've shared have been desserts. What can I say? My dream job in high school was to be a baker (and I've worked at a couple bakeries), so making sweet things is a habit I have yet to break. At least these desserts are healthy-ish, right?!

This recipe comes from the Kona Avocado Festival I went to a few weekends ago. Loko Wraps, a local restaurant here in West Hawai'i, brought an avo-mazing chocolate açaí bowl AND the super rad dude working there shared the recipe! So now, I'm sharing it with you, because it's seriously so. Freaking. GOOD. I added that funky swirl of almond buttery goodness because I'm obsessed with almond butter and also like to make things extra decadent.

The OG avo-sundae 😍

I've heard a lot about how the thought of avocado in something sweet and chocolatey is a turn-off. But when you think of how mild avocado is, when it's blended and masked with deep, dark, decadent chocolate, it really just turns into a creamy fat element just like heavy cream, minus the digestive system-destroying after effects of all of that lactose that comes with it. So, if you're lactose intolerant, I call that a win.

It all starts with some avocado and bananas. With avocado season seemingly in full swing on the Big Island, and banana trees firing off sweet yellow nuggets like there's no tomorrow, this ice cream recipe was the perfect opportunity for me to use up the abundance of free avos and bananas I've been blessed with by my hanai family and the school garden. With a couple of add-ins that just so happen to be staples in my pantry, and this recipe comes together within minutes - no heating or churning needed.

What you'll need:

Psychedelicious* Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Nicecream

1 ripe avocados, frozen
2 ripe bananas, frozen
1 cup (8 oz) coconut milk
1/4 cup dark, unsweetened cocoa powder
Cacao nibs
1/4 cup Almond or peanut butter for swirlin'

*No actual psychedelics used in recipe. That nutty swirl, tho 👌🏽

Since I don't own a food processor, I used a blender to make this. To make things easier, I mashed and froze my avocados inside of sandwich baggies, then cut the frozen squares into cubes to make for easier blending. I also cut the bananas into 1"-thick slices. If you're using a food processor, you can probably get away with just throwing everything in frozen and whole.

         

Add the avocado, bananas, coconut milk, and cocoa powder to the blender and, well, blend it. With my blender, I needed to mix everything up with a spoon in between pulses so that everything would get evenly blended and there would be no random avocado chunks floating around. It should have a very thick consistency, like buttercream frosting or cream cheese.

Scrape the mixture into a 9"x9" dish and place in the freezer, covered, until frozen, about an hour or so. You could also enjoy it straight out of the food processor like soft serve, but I think scooping it is more fun. 

If you want extras mixed in, drop a few tablespoons of nut butter on top of the nice cream and swirl it in with a knife. I also tossed some cacao nibs in and on top for a little extra crunch. I'm also pretty sure that there might have been some açaí juice in the original recipe, but honestly, I zoned out into a chocolate-induced trance whe homeboy was telling me because the ice cream was that good. 

Nevertheless, it was still delicious even with the absence of açaí as I made it today! 

Turn this into a sundae by topping with granola, nuts, coconut, berries, and whatever else your heart desires.

Just remember, this is still a dessert so watch your portions! This recipe (which is a half batch) makes 8 -1/2 cup servings! 

And I promise to share some more savory recipes soon. I've got some exciting plans upcoming for the blog as far as content goes, so stay tuned! 

Pi Day/National RD Day!

⚫⚪Happy Pi Day!⚪⚫

In honor of the world's most delicious number (and National Registered Dietitian Day), I whipped up this beautiful, incredible, absolutely delectable plant-based French silk pie this morning 😍 it turned out so much better than I thought it would!

This pie uses a nut butter and oat-flour based crust to create a nutritious, gluten-free, high-fiber Graham cracker-like base for the creamy, dairy and egg-free chocolate pudding filling.

I'm beginning to realize I need more nut-allergy friendly recipes in my collection. After all, my mission is to enable all people to eat DELICIOUS, healthy meals, and a lot of the really tasty egg/gluten/dairy free recipes use nuts! If anyone has fun recommendations for ingredients, let me know!

🍪Oat Crust🍪
1/4 cup oats, blended into flour
1 tbsp almond butter (or whatever you've got!)
1 tsp cold water
Sprinkle of cinnamon
Sprinkle of salt

Blend the oats into a powder, or use store bought oat flour. Add to a bowl with the cinnamon and salt. Add the almond butter and mix with a fork until crumbly add water to make it stick together. Form into a round and bake at 400°F for 10 minutes.

🍫Chococado Filling🥑
1/2 avocado
1 perfectly ripe banana
1 tbsp chia seeds
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tbsp alt milk of your choice

Add all to a blender or food processor. Pulse, and add additional milk to thin out as needed to get things moving. It should have the consistency of pudding. The chia seeds help give it that thick, jiggly structure.

✨🎉Top-tions🎉✨
🥥Cocochia pudding
🍫Cacao nibs or chopped dark chocolate
🍓Berries


As I was making this, I realized there are so many variations I could make with this. Lemon/lilikoi curd, apple, haupia... Get creative with what you like! But everyone loves chocolate, right? 😉😊