‘The one thing you can change is how you treat yourself, and that one thing, can change everything.’
For me eating well is part of self-care and self-care is self-love.
My relationship with food wasn’t always great. At one point I used to restrict my calorie intake to 500 calories a day, at another I bought all my meals from external vendors and ate all my meals in the office at my desk. It wasn’t until my health started to break down that I started to introspect and realized that I was denying myself access to the most easily available healthcare, my food.
People often think that eating healthy is time consuming, restrictive and frankly not fun. This millionaire shortbread should change all of those perceptions. Mr B in fact kept sneaking into the kitchen like a naughty child to steal a piece until I offered it up for breakfast. It is 75% nuts and dates, which have immense health benefits, minerals, vitamins, fibre and protein, as does the vegan chocolate. It takes 20 minutes from start to finish, including the time it takes to set in the fridge. It’s is seen as a dessert but is healthier than most conventional store bought breakfasts.
I loved all of my grandma’s food, everything she made was tasty, nourishing and full of love. She believed in eating pure food to fuel herself and her life and doing the same for others. I now choose to follow in her footsteps, to respect my body and my mind by supplying it with healthy, life giving food and doing the same for others. I hope this recipe and blog inspire you to do the same.
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups of nuts (your choice)
- 12 pitted dates, soaked for 5 minutes
- 1 cup vegan chocolate chips
Method
- Roast your nuts for 5-7 minutes until you they start to release oils (they will smell toasty at this point). I used pecans, walnuts and almonds in equal quantities
- Let them cool. Once they are cool, put them in a blender and pulse to a crumb. Make sure not to over blend, or they will turn to nut butter
- Drain and add the dates, blend until the mixture comes together
- Line your baking tin with parchment paper, add in the mixture and push down, try and make it an even-ish layer
- Melt the vegan chocolate chips. I put them in a glass bowl above a half-filled pot of boiling water
- Pour over the top of the first layer
- Pop in the freezer for 10 minutes
- Don’t forget to enjoy the crack of the chocolate as you cut into it
