It's National chocolate week in the UK… That's got to be the best week, right?

The perfect week to indulge BUT let this also be a week of mindfulness and creativity in making healthier sweet treats and also an opportunity to raise awareness of the benefits of the good old cocoa bean and in particular 'raw' cacao and healthy unrefined forms of sweetness.

I promised you a recipe and I won't disappoint but first I want to give you a quick round up of the heath benefits of cocoa... pin it to your wall as a little reminder! :-)

The real food source have a wide range of raw cacao products as fantastic prices... including this new 'raw' cacao powder and a blog post here to discuss the debate around whether cacao can truly be raw?  

What do you think?

What healthy chocolate treats do you like to make... feel free to link up and share in the comments?

Now.. here's your recipe. It's a spin off from my classic plain quinoa milk

This ones a keeper I promise!

Recipe: Chocolate quinoa shake

Makes approx. 1 ltr

Ingredients

• 1 cup cooked quinoa*
• 2 cups water
• ½ tsp vanilla bean paste or powder
• 8 drops stevia (to taste) or another unrefined sweetener of choice
• 8 deglet noor or 3-4 medjool dates
• 3 tbs cocoa powder
• 2 tbs fine oatmeal or 1 tbs nut butter (optional- to give extra thickness)

Method

Blend all together well until thick and creamy. Chill before serving for best flavour and to thicken up a little more. Use within 2 days.

*ideally soak overnight and rinse well before cooking to minimise any bitterness.

Options: add the flesh and juice of an orange in stead of part of the water for an choc-orange version! Yum!!

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