Organic Raw Cacao Easter Bunnies and Mini Easter Eggs – ON SALE NOW!

For the first time this year we are making and selling chocolate Easter bunnies and mini decorated Easter eggs made with the finest quality chocolate….because life is too short for bunnies – young and old – to eat poor quality chocolate!

We are selling these 2 hand-made varieties:

organic yummy bunny

Perfect for all the yummy mummies, delicious daddies and little bunnies out there. This 175g block of solid raw dark chocolate bunny is retailing for $16.  It’s the real chocolate deal made with raw cacao powder, raw cacao butter, pure Canadian maple syrup and a pinch of sea salt (81% raw cacao content). This should keep the whole family going for quite some time!
 

mini sokolata delights

These delightful little half eggs are the perfect bite-sized treat or for those treasured Easter egg hunts, popped into some hard plastic egg-shaped containers you can purchase from $2 shops. They are retailing for $10/ per 100g bag (approx 34 half eggs/bag). They are all hand-made with raw cacao powder, raw cacao butter, pure Canadian maple syrup and a pinch of sea salt and the majority are decorated with:

• chilli flakes and dehydrated orange peel (the “hot sailor”)
• goji berries (the “gorgeous goji”)
• activated almonds (the “awesome almond”)
• peppermint oil and mint leaves (the “minty express”)
• activated cinnamon buckwheat  (the “crunchy cruiser”)

My assistant Tom has produced a fleet-full of these mini sokolata delights. He must be a frustrated navy officer. I’m a frustrated rock star. Together, it makes for interesting times in my kitchen.
 

To read about the nutritional benefits of raw cacao powder and what’s in commercially-produced chocolate that you might want to steer clear of, read one of my earlier newsletters here.

If these Easter chocolates don’t take your fancy, there’s always my sokolata (raw dark chocolate slabs…choose from 10 different flavours retailing for $8.70/100g) or my raw cacao coconut balls (sweetened with whole medjool dates retailing for $16.50/bag of 6). In previous years I have used my choc balls for Easter egg hunts and encased them in hard plastic egg-shaped containers I bought from $2 shops (see photo below).

To place your orders and purchase any of my products, simply text me 0407 871 884 and collect from my workshop at 23 Kent Street, Waverley at a mutually convenient time. My assistants or I are home from 8am until 10pm most days.

WISHING YOU ALL A HAPPY CHOCOLATE-FILLED EASTER!! 

This is not a paleo re-enactment

“We’re not going for paleo reenactment here. We look at things from an ancestral perspective to generate questions and hypotheses and give us some ideas about what may or may not make sense…”

– Chris Kresser

I read this quote recently and it really resonated with me. We can’t go back to live a replica of a paleolithic lifestyle and nor would we want to. We rely on our modern conveniences far too much – who would want to wash clothes by hand and give up every electronic device, to list just a few examples? So many anti-ancestral advocates use this line to argue that because we can’t go back it’s pointless to even try to push against the tide of convenience foods and other realities of our modern lifestyle.

The point is, it is useful to look at things from an ancestral perspective to better understand and appreciate what makes us tick, function and thrive, and what makes us fall apart. It is really hard to be happy when we are not functioning properly. And conversely life seems to flow more effortlessly when we are firing on all 6 cylinders.

When we understand our anatomy and physiology and can align to the best of our ability our modern lifestyle choices with our biology, we have greater potential to perform and function properly and reach our true potential. I say “to the best of our ability” because the foods we eat today together with the quality of our soils is a far cry from those enjoyed by our palaeolithic ancestors from which we evolved and from which our genes were set, the quality of the water we now drink and the air we breathe is inferior, our stress is now chronic, our lifestyle is far more sedentary and relegated to the indoors with artificial lights, and our length of sleep and its cycle is severely compromised. No matter hard how we try. But we still have the choice to align our modern lifestyle as best we can to more closely match what we are built for. We can maximise nutrient-density. We can minimise toxins. We can move and sleep more, sit less, spend more time outdoors in nature in sunshine and make attempts to manage our stress. We shouldn’t throw the baby out with our chlorinated bathwater in the name of our modern lifestyle.

Our children’s health is partly a reflection of our health at the time of their birth and partly a reflection of their diet and other lifestyle factors that impact them as they grow. So we need to invest in ourselves and our children for our collective well-being and that of future generations.  And that’s why I care. This is not a reenactment. It’s being consciously aware of whether our deliberations further our potential, our health, our happiness and that of future generations and the well-being of the planet or detract from it.

The catch phrase for my business “traditional wholefoods for a modern world” summarises where I stand on this issue- to strive to marry the best of both worlds- the wisdom of our ancestors with the conveniences of our modern, digital age. To unite them to create a new kind of homeostasis for the modern human.

Chocolate Workshop: Sunday 8th March 2015: 9am-1pm

Easter looming around the corner is the perfect excuse to run a chocolate workshop! Wouldn’t it be wonderful if parents (and their kids!) could make their own nutritious and delicious chocolates without having to resort to  additive-laden poor-quality commercial varieties?

In this workshop we will be covering how to make:

(a) chocolate block/slab
(b) chocolate slice
(c) chocolate hazelnut spread (the real “nutella”)
(d) chocolate ice-cream
(e) hot chocolate pudding
(f) raw chocolate mousse
(g) Mexican hot chocolate with chilli, orange and coconut milk

The above just about covers the entire range of my favourite ways to consume chocolate!! Chocolate cake will be covered in my gluten-free cakes and muffins workshop coming up soon! Chocolate smoothies will be covered in my bone broth workshop (yes really!) and breakfast workshops- both coming up later this year.

We will be cooking with unprocessed fermented raw cacao powder. We will not be using any refined sweeteners – only natural unprocessed sweeteners or whole fruit. All recipes are grain-free but 3 contain dairy.

Cost is $140 per person and includes:

• information handout with step by step guides and recipes
• nutritional theory discussion on raw cacao powder, raw cacao butter, carob, chocolate and sweeteners
• practical demonstration
• hands-on experience
• food tasting and lots of it!!!!

This workshop is ideal for:

• those who are grain-free or gluten-free
• chocolate lovers who want to learn how to make their own nutrient-dense healthy chocolate sweets and desserts using only unprocessed nutritious ingredients
• people who want to transition off processed chocolate and want a healthy substitute for themselves or their family members
• people who want to try new things and eat lots of chocolate! YES PLEASE!!!

When: 9am – 1pm  Sunday 8 March 2015

Where: 23 Kent Street, Waverley, 2024

Spaces limited. If there is an oversubscription of interest,  I will run another class on Sunday 22 March. Or let me know which of these 2 dates you prefer!

RSVP:  To secure your spot you will need to:

1. text me on 0407 871 884 to confirm that there are spaces available. Spots can only be reserved for 24 hours; and
2. transfer $140 (referencing your FIRST AND SURNAME and ‘CHOC’) into my bank account:

Account name: star anise organic wholefoods (aust) pty ltd

BSB: 062 000
Account no: 15110110

Places will book up quickly!

 

Cancellation policy: once funds are deposited into my bank account they are non-refundable but can be transferred to another cooking class/workshop upon 48 hours notice.