Last weekend, Ryan and I stopped by the 1st Annual Connecticut VegFest.
We came home with a random assortment of goodies: from baggies of grape seed flour touted for both facial masks and smoothies to a children’s book called A Boy, A Chicken and the Lion of Judah–How Ari became a Vegetarian. We are slowly working our way through both.
At one point, someone asked Ryan if he was a “prisoner” at the expo. HARDLY! He is the vegetarian, not me. Do prisoners get to sample six varieties of stone ground organic chocolate? Sea salt, cinnamon sugar, and cocoa/coffee roasted pumpkin seeds?
Ryan’s favorite sample was this heart-healthy “s’more” from Nature’s Approved. I think he ate six cupfuls.
This is how we re-fashioned it at home.
Now that looks good, right. Curious?
Graham crackers? Check. Chocolate syrup? Normal, even if this is the organic variety – you can also use a melted chunk of chocolate or chocolate chips. What’s that white stuff?
Ok, here comes the weird. It’s coconut oil. Coconut oil is liquid at higher temperatures, but below 75 degrees, its a solid that you can spread (or heat to return to a liquid). Dr. Oz loves the stuff – highlighting well-established benefits for weight loss, cardiovascular health, skin care (trying it on my son’s eczema next) and ulcer treatment.
Its an indulgent snack, though you just need a trace of coconut oil and chocolate syrup. I am not generally a coconut fan or a Mounds candy bar kind of girl, but I’m finding things that smell as good as old-school suntan lotion taste even better.
Turns out to be a pretty good snack for kids – especially for my vegetarian son who has few healthy fats in his diet (doesn’t much like avocados or peanut butter). Best of all, once you stock the coconut oil, its easy to have all the ingredients on hand for a satisfying dessert fix for kids – or anyone.
It’s weird, I know. But its really good.
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