THM ♥ mama’s recipes

It’s a beautiful day here!  Sunshine always seems to change my outlook — sort of, no matter what I’ve got to do, if the day’s a sunny one, generally, my attitude is sunny, too!  It’s taken me all these months of ‘working at’ the Trim Healthy Mama plan to get confident enough to begin sharing some of the different recipes or how I’ve learned to use the different recipes in the book — but every day I learn something new!  Ever a “free-styler” I have to really work at following the recipes.  But I’ve come to see and really appreciate the beauty of the THM plan is that once you have the basic understanding of meal guidelines, you can adapt the plan to your personal tastes, etc — and the recipes can be tweaked to fit your personal THM-style.  I have begun to call THM a method rather than a diet.  A diet (for most of us) is a temporary fix that is repeat over and over with the same results — some weightloss and the inevitable return of weight.  And then some.

Learning a method of doing something and having good results over a length of time seems to replace the old way of ‘behaving’ or doing things.  Most of us cannot stick with a *diet* bcz we miss so many things or we are overcome with temptation, we cheat, we figure we can never lose weight, we give in to the temptations that made us fat and unhealthy in the first place and then, to make matters worse, we give up.  And get fat.  And unhealthy.  And the cycle repeats.  Over and over again, we recycle the same problem.   The bizarre thing is that when we’re not dieting at all, we don’t call eating a cookie or candy: cheating.  We’re just eating.  We’re just eating cookies and candies… O, we might feel like we shouldn’t eat many of them, but we don’t generally call it cheating unless we’re on a diet.

That ought to spark a lightbulb going on in our minds!  How can we stop dieting and start eating so that we stop the enticement of cheating?  And stop loathing our food decisions?  And our bodies?    Intro: THM.

The beauty of the THM method, of eating and living is that you will learn and continue learning and exploring all sorts of new ways to prepare and eat healthful and satisfying meals.  I wouldn’t tell you this if it weren’t so—I couldn’t tell you this if I hadn’t already been traveling this path.  Perhaps that’s why I’ve waited this long to really delve into sharing specifics and, now, recipes.  I thought it wise to start right in with:  Candy!

In the book, the basic recipe is on page 371… I know, right?!?!
All the way to page 371 and you find out about  (S) Skinny Chocolate?!?!  Yes.

I make these and call them Mama’s Candies… The candies are in a jar (or two) in the fridge if you want one. Or two.

I make them in my “mini muffin” pans lined with mini-muffin papers.  I do this primarily bcz it’s easier to pop them out of the pan with they’re set and it’s easier for me to take them where I’m having a cuppa coffee. :o)

I quadruple the recipe in the book and make 72 candies — they’re approximately 50-55 calories each.   Though the THM plan is not a calorie counting plan, it’s wise to know approximately what the value is so that you don’t go overboard eating stuff.  In this way, I know that I am perfectly, perfectly fine with having a couple of these each day with no worries at all.  In the beginning, as with *cream* in my coffee, until I calculated the calorie content, I was a bit more freestyling! ~smile~  And am still okay with all that early learning… it all worked out fine.

So here’s my recipe — I line 3  24-cup Mini muffin pans with mini muffin papers or liners (thus the 72 candy size recipe).  Determine a flat area in the fridge to set the filled pans.

And then, in a measuring bowl I place…
2 Cups very warm Coconut Oil
1 Cup Cocoa
4 Tblsp. *ground Truvia
1 tsp. Sea Salt
1+ tsps. Vanilla

I either use a whisk or my stick blender to thoroughly blend all the ingredients.  Then, I pour the chocolatey-goodness to fill each lined muffin cup.  Then you’ll see that there is still some chocolately-goodness left in the measuring bowl.  Lick your fingers clean. Unplug the stick blender… yes, you know you wanna… then wash it, too.
Set the filled muffin pans in the predetermined level place in your refrigerator — stack, but stagger them so the cups rest slightly  beside each other not *in* each other.  I know. ;o)
In an hour or two, you’ll have “mama’s candies.”  Proceed with caution.  And… these are an *S* And you won’t feel well if you eat all you think you want.

* I grind Truvia & the Sea Salt in a coffee grinder I have dedicated solely to this (and herbs)  purpose.  When I don’t grind the salt, also, it’s kind of grainy in the smooth chocolate.
You can make these on a flat lined cookies sheet, too… but I found that the snapping off a piece here and a piece there was too much freedom for me.  I needed the discipline of a couple of pieces – not part of a slab of chocolatey-goodness.  I’ve also used candy molds, too.  Choose your best method…

Next time, Good Girl Moonshine !

http://store.trimhealthymama.com/default.asp

♥