Bon Bons

Hey there Cutes.

Put on your Danc'n boots

Come Dance with me.

You'll want to go dancing after you eat a few of these bon bons. More cacao ...... more magnesium. For the joy and health benefits of Cacao, look on my "Cacao Breakfast Pudding" post.

These tasty tid-bits can be as chocolaty as you desire. I'll give you a sorta basic recipe but you can adjust to your taste.

Use a food processor.

1 C. almonds (remove skins)

1 C. Cacao powder or nibs

1/2 C. coconut

Agave necter to taste

1 or 2 tb. pine nuts (optional)

small amount of spring water. Maybe 1/4 C. Go easy & slowly as you want to be able to make balls

Process everything to a ball-rolling consistency. Roll small balls in any of the following..... finely chopped coconut, cacoa powder, any finely chopped nuts. If you are lucky enough to have Virgo patience in your astro chart, roll them into small, round, even balls, (not the lumpy kind like mine) Then come to my house & help me color code my underwear drawer. :)

But seriously ..... a tip on almonds, the most alkaline of nuts. Almonds contain a small amount of amygdalin (better known as laetrile which is cancer curing/preventative). But don't go crazy on this nummy food as it's high in fat UNLESS you have a degenerative disease, then eat up. When I was young, I used to eat several apricot pits (laetrile) a day to help avoid degenerative diseases. But after the Feds found out it would cure cancer.... bye bye pits. I know many people who now get them from Mexico or grow their own.

How to remove almond skins ....

You want almonds to be raw ....... heat them on stove in a small amount of water. DON'T BOIL. Just bring to a boil so almonds are heated. Drain H2O and toss almonds in a bowl of ice cubes and water. Now, pinch almonds between thumb and finger & the skins pop right off. It's rather tedious but I sit in front of the tube with 3 bowls. The bowl of almonds in the ice cubes, 1 bowl for the skinned and another bowl for the skins. As long as I'm "doing it" I skin enough for almond milk. hummm ..... ever tried the milk?

Wanna know how to make almond milk?

Toss a couple handsfull of organic skinned almonds in the blender

Chop up 3 or 4 medjool dates (be sure to remove pits) & toss in

Add spring water.... enough to make it a milky consistency

Mix. I use a high speed blender so everything gets chopped up. If your blender isn't as powerful and a little residue is left, you can squeeze the milk through a cotton bag or cheese cloth.

Tip.... For sweetner, you can use any dates or agave, or honey or even maple syrup. Date are known for curing throat & chest ailments.

I recently happened to spot organic corn flakes in the health food store. Shades of my childhood. Used to love corn flakes. The bag just jumped into my cart, so I thought, oh what the heck ..... Soon as I got home I poured a bowl of the crunchy flakes and added cold almond milk. OMG I thought I was that skinny little Indian again who they were always trying to "fatten up." I only recommend corn flakes as a special memory treat. It's a once-in-a-while thing. Remember ..... when ever you cut a grain, you are devitalizing it. Far better to eat the whole grain. I eat whole grain oatmeal every day. You can cook it slowly (all night is good) in a crock pot. Nice & creamy. I go against my belief system when I cook with electricity ..... ex. crockpot, food processor, blender, etc. but they are such labor savers and I'm healthy. If you are sick, don't put this extra stress on your already over-burdened body. It's far better to cook with gas & use hand chopping.

Cacao Breakfast Pudding

Cacao Pudding

You'll have to adjust this to your taste. I'll just give you some basic ingredients. I use a power blender, a Blendtec but I'm sure any blender will do the job.

1 tai coconut, use water & the young meat

or you can use a banana

an avocado or 1/2, depends on how much you're making

2 or 3 heaping tb. of raw cacao powder or nibs

there again, depends on how chocolatey you want it

Around 2 handfuls of greens. I used arugula for this but you can use spring greens, romaine, lettuce, spinach. I like to use the lighter greens rather than kale because the taste isn't as strong but Kale gives you a lotta bang for your buck.

I sweeten to taste with agave.

I add favorite superfoods as bee pollen, hemp seed, goji berries,

Go a little light on the liquid at first or it may get too runny, although always remember to use enough liquid so it won't stress your blender.

Here's the story of my "weeding day." Montana has had rain every day this spring. Bozeman has always been a valley of rich farmland and along with all this rain, every growing thing seems to explode into life. So do the unwanted weeds.

I made a big dish of the above pudding and ate half of it before I went out to pull weeds. I wasn't in the mood but it had to be done. I weeded 4 hours by squatting, kneeling or bending over with my butt in the air. I went in the house and ate the rest of the pudding. The weeding job was only half finished, so back outside to weed for another 3 1/2 hours. Holy Moly..... that's 7 1/2 hours of weeding. I was beginning to feel the stress in my back from the constant bending over but it wasn't anything excruciating. The next day, I was aware of a little stiffness in the backs of my legs. That was it. I'm not trying to say that this is a magic potion that is responsible for allowing you to work all day but I know it gives me energy and something else. I get a real "high" from this chocolate concoction. Have you ever been drunk on alcohol? Of course, everyone has. You know that happy, delerious feeling ...... just before the hangover ........ that's the feeling I get with this pudding. WOW It's a great happy natural high.

Chocolate, Cocoa and Cacao....... What's the difference. The words are all used interchangeably. There doesn't seem to be a rigid demarcation line with the words. Cacao usually means the raw bean and it's often called chocolate, too. Cocoa usually denotes it's been heated and that results in loss of many of it's nutrients. I wouldn't touch "milk chocolate" with a ten foot pole. It means just what it says that milk has been added. The milk will contain artificial hormones that have been fed to the animals and along with that goes a bouquet of pesticide residues. So the cocoa powder will dissolve in water, a potassiium carbonate is also added. You don't need these additives in your system so use the raw cacao bean in either powder or nibs form.

Benefits of Cacao

Magnesium galore. Probably the highest source. Magnesium builds strong bones and balances brain chemistry. If you are eating a Standard American Diet, you are most likely deficient in Magnesium. Women menstrate and they crave chocolate because this is a time when it's easy to get deficient of magnesium. Raw Cacao is also rich in sulfur that builds strong hair and nails and gorgeous skin.

Remember the high I said I got from eating raw cacao ...... that is because it contains anandamide and phenylethylamine. But you can simply call it the the Bliss or Love chemical. That is why Love feels so good because we release this bliss chemical. So therefore, being in love or eating chocolate will give you that same blissful high.

Raw Cacao also contains arginine which increases blood to the penis and that increases sexual desire. Good News. A natural Viagra

Negative Effects of Roasting or Heating Cacao

Roasting releases both tannic and oxalic acids and can cause mood swings, nervousness, anxiety and insomnia

To sum up..... eat the raw Cacao. You can find it at a health food store or you can order it online. I order mine online and always keep a good supply on hand.