Raw Vegan Almond Butter, Coconut & Chocolate Bark

Its Valentine's weekend. This separates the world into two kinds of people. There are those who are attached. That means a weekend of romance, flowers, dates, pressure to accomplish the first three on this list or possibly suffer a fight. Then there are those who are single. The movies make this seem like a sad time for those who are unattached and maybe some are, but from what I see of those around me, its time for friendship, parties, and a celebration of your relationship with yourself. There is one thing that unites both ends of the spectrum on Valentine's Day and thats CHOCOLATE. Whether you get a box from your date, your mom, steal some out of your child's Valentine's bag, or buy it for yourself- Valentine's day is an excuse to indulge in chocoholism.

Then there are people like me. As a vegan, I can't have most commercial chocolate, certainly none that can be found at the grocery store. Because I know how to read labels properly, I can find one or two bars at Whole Foods that don't contain dairy but Simon is terrified to buy me any food other than an apple in fear it will contain dairy or egg under a secretive name. So I decided to make my own chocolate this Valentine's Day...

Raw Vegan Almond Butter, Coconut & Chocolate Bark

Ingredients:

2/3 cup Cocao powder

1/2 cup Coconut Oil

1/3 cup Shredded Unsweetened Raw Coconut 

5 tablespoons Maple Syrup

3/4 Cup Almond Butter (approximate)

1. Mix first 4 ingredients.
2. Line 8x8 pan with parchment paper. Pour half chocolate mixture into the pan.
3. Freeze for 20 minutes or until hardened.
4. Spread almond butter over chocolate.
5. Pour remaining chocolate over almond butter.
6. Freeze for 1 hour.
7. Break into pieces and eat!

A few notes:
1. Keep refrigerated or the chocolate will soften and be very messy
2. Not all almond butter is raw, if you care about this- read the label or grind your own at the store or at home- my juicer has a nut butter setting, maybe yours does too!
3. Use 100% maple syrup, the other stuff is filled with artificial ingredients
4. cocao powder is expensive but will last a long time, amazon.com is probably the cheapest place to get it

This stuff is SO GOOD. Its rich too, so you don't need a lot to be satisfied :)