Chocolate Covered Bacon

Yes, yes I did.  I fried up some bacon, melted some chocolate and dipped the bacon in the chocolate.  Crazy?  Either it would be the worst thing ever or the best thing ever.  Best. Thing. Ever. Further proof the bacon does indeed make everything better.  The salty sweetness is actually quite delicious with a good dark chocolate.  And for a little fun on Valentine’s Day, which I have to spend apart from my sweetie, I shaped the bacon into hearts.  I was going to make my own chocolate coating with raw cacao, cocoa butter and rapadura but there was no cocoa butter to be found in my town.  So I settled for Enjoy Life chocolate chips which weren’t too bad.  It contains evaporated cane juice, chocolate liquor, and cocoa butter which wasn’t too far off from what I was going to use anyway.

Chocolate Covered Bacon

• 1 lb bacon, nitrate free
• 10 oz bag semi-sweet chocolate chips (Enjoy Life is what I used)
• 1 tbsp coconut oil

To make heart shaped bacon, cut in half and over lap like this:

Bake at 400F for about 12-15 mins.  You’ll want them crispy.  Remove from oven, drain fat and let cool enough to handle.
Melt chocolate and coconut oil in a double boiler or small saucepan.
Dip bacon into chocolate and set on a wax paper lined tray.  Set in the fridge (or freezer) to let the chocolate set.

Part of Traditional Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday, Whole Food Wednesday 

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Kefir

This simple recipe uses gelatin to set it rather than cooking.  You don’t want to cook all those good buggies in your kefir (or yogurt).  I love when tasty meets healthy.

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Nut Crust

• 1 pkg unflavored gelatin
• 1/2 cup water, divided
• About 1 1/2 to 2 quarts of kefir or yogurt reduced to 2 cups kefir cheese (you can use 16 oz cream cheese), softened
• 3/4 cup rapadura sugar (unprocessed sugar or honey)
• juice 1 lemon (save zest for crust)
• 1/2 cup fresh cream
• 16 oz pumpkin (preferably fresh but canned will do)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• pinch of salt

Dissolve gelatin in 1/4 cup cold water for about 5 mins.  Add 1/4 cup hot water and stir to dissolve.
In a stand mixer with a paddle, mix kefir until smooth.  Add sugar, lemon juice, cream, pumpkin, spices and salt. Whip for about 2 mins on medium speed.  Mix in gelatin until well blended.

Nut Crust

• 1 1/2 cups almond flour
• 5 tbsp melted butter (or coconut oil)
• 2 tbsp rapadura sugar

Mix sugar into flour.  Mix butter until well blended.  Press into a deep pie plate.

Pour cheesecake mixture into the nut crust and chill overnight.

Chocolate Eggnog

I wanted hot chocolate tonight but as I started gathering the ingredients to make some, I thought chocolate eggnog would be super tasty.  So I made that instead.  Good idea!  This is not only super tasty and easy to make but it’s good for you too!

Chocolate Eggnog

• 4 cups cold raw milk
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/3 cup hot water
• 4 eggs
• 2 tbsp honey or maple syrup
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg

Mix cocoa powder, honey and hot water until smooth.  Let cool a bit.  Using an immersion blender, regular blender or mixer, add remaining ingredients and blend until smooth.  Enjoy!

*Next time I think I’ll replace one cup of milk with one cup of fresh cream (I was out).

Nutty Pumpkin Pie

Nut crust

• 2 1/2 cups walnuts, finely chopped in a food processor
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted.

Combine nuts, cinnamon and sugar. Stir in butter. Press into the bottom and sides of a 9″ pie crust. Bake at 350 for about 12 mins. Watch it since nuts burn easily. Cool and fill with pie filling.

Pumpkin Pie Filling

• 2 cups pumpkin puree or 1 can, 15 oz
• 1/2 cup milk 
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp cardamon
• 1/4 tsp salt