Healthy Chocolate Peanut Butter "Ice Cubes"

Since starting this blog - as with life in general - I have had moments of high and low. The first week I started the blog I was under the naive impression that I would add a recipe every day (HA!!) After one frenzied week of non-stop cooking, followed by frantic photographing (while our hot meals sat there getting cold as I desperately tried to decipher the pictograms on my camera), and nights sat on the couch until past midnight trying to convert pounds to grams and think of something clever to write, it finally dawned on me If I continue like this for 8 more weeks James will divorce me!  And he would have been justified!  

My house was a mess. There were mountains of unfolded laundry scattered around the house, strategically placed by me in the hopes that they might blend in with the furniture. The kitchen perpetually looked like I was having a car boot/garage sale of healthy ingredients while hosting a dinner party for 20 - at the same time! And that oh so willing husband of mine was being forced not only to eat vegetarian meals but to eat them cold at 9 pm. If I continued at that pace I would be healthier in 8 weeks time but I might also be single. That was a low.

The highs have come from having not only friends but also perfect strangers write to me and say that they have tried my recipe and loved it! Woo hoo! One of those messages came with a photo of the Minestrone Soup she had made and a really sweet email. She was a mum herself, living near Monaco and a professional photographer and she wondered if I would like to get together to take some photos of my food. Hell yeah! 

So, one morning Emilie came over and we tried, each of us with baby in hand or a toddler glued to hip, to make and photograph some food. She took this photo of Siena (21 months) reaching very excitedly for these chocolates as well as the beautiful photo of my Thai Veggie Cakes and some other photos for meals I have still not had the time to write about (I decided I did not want to get divorced and slowed my pace down a bit!!). 

Healthy Chocolate Peanut Butter "Ice Cubes"

I called these ice cubes because I made them in a flexible silicone ice cube tray which I bought at Casa and I'm sure you can find them just about everywhere these days. You can also use a flexible mini-muffin tin or paper muffin cups but I think the small size of the ice cube tray is perfect.

Ingredients

(This makes 32 "ice cubes" - they will be gobbled up quickly but can be stored in the freezer for a couple months)

Peanut Butter Base:

1 1/2 cups (380g) organic, sugar-free peanut butter

1/4 Cup (50g) Organic Coconut Oil

2 Tablespoons (30ml) Organic Maple Syrup

Chocolate Topping:

3/4 cup (67g) Raw Cacao Powder

3/4 Cup (150g) Organic Coconut Oil

2 Tablespoons (30 ml) Organic Maple Syrup

For the peanut butter bottom;

Melt the coconut oil if needed over a low heat. Mix it with the peanut butter and maple syrup until everything is well combined. Spoon the mixture evenly into the ice cube trays and then pat the tray on the counter to level the tops smooth. Place in the freezer for about 15 minutes or until hard.

Meanwhile, for the chocolate topping - melt the coconut oil if necessary and then stir the cacao powder and maple syrup into the oil until smooth. Pour the mixture over the top of the peanut butter and return to the freezer until solid, about 15 minutes. Keep stored in the fridge or freezer.

Voila!