Look you could tell me peanut butter is bad for you all day long. My ears are unavailable for this kinda talk. I have been eating peanut butter since I was a wee young girl by the spoonful. It. is. my. favorite.
My favorite.
I'll never quit you, peanut butter.
Not never, not know how.
Sincerely, 
Me.

Ok- sorry about that. Just wanted to clarify my love for peanut butter. If you for some reason do not feel this special way about peanut butter- by all means substitute almond butter in this recipe. Or if your nut free, sunflower seed butter could possibly work too.
​ Try it, ya never know!


I almost gave up on this recipe- half way through cause it just was not turning out right. But I pushed through & voila. I'm so glad I didn't. Cause this genuinely might be the best dessert I've ever made. Seriously. I had to force myself to create something new after this cause I would've made it again- and again, and again. And probably again.
​Well lets be real- I will be making this a lot in the future.

​Keep scrolling down for the recipe.

RAW CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER CHEESECAKE SQUARES
Recipe by: Krysten Jorgensen, The Daily Kale

Ingredients:

For the crust:

• 1 cup almonds
• 1 tbsp. coconut oil
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• Pinch of salt
• 10 pitted dates or about 1/2 cup 

For the filling:

• 1/2 cup cashews
• 5 tbsp peanut butter
• Pinch of salt
• 1/3 cup or 5 tbsp  + 1 tsp coconut oil (melted)
• 2 tbsp water
• 2 tbsp maple syrup

For the chocolate drizzle:

• 1/4 cup chocolate chips (70% cacao or higher)
• 1 tbsp cacao powder
• 3 tbsp coconut oil
• 1 tbsp maple syrup 

Directions:
​

1. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper. Make sure it's lined both ways so this won't be touching any of the actual pan.
2. For the crust: In a food processor, blend just the almonds for about 10-15 seconds until they are in fine/little bits. Add in the rest of the crust ingredients and blend for about 15 seconds until evenly combined. If needed: add in 1-2 tbsp. of water so that the crust starts to form when you blend it for another 5-10 seconds. Now you've got your crust. 
3. Place the crust in the pan. And push with your fingers or fist to flatten it out evenly so it's covering the entire bottom of the lined pan. 
4. Place all filling ingredients inside of the food processor and blend until completely creamy & smooth. Add in the extra tbsp of water if it is not creamy/silky. Keep blending until it's evenly blended. I let my processor run for about 1 minute. Making sure it's as creamy & combined as possible.
5. Pour the filling into your loaf pan on top of the crust. Use a spatula to make the filling even out. Or tap the pan a couple of times on the counter until it evens out.
6. Heat up about 1/4 cup water in a small pot until just boiling then turn off.
7. In a small stainless steel bowl, combine all of the chocolate drizzle ingredients. Put it on top of the small pot and let the mixture melt, while stirring. *Reminder, the flame is turned off for this. You don't want to burn the chocolate. It should melt down to a nice chocolate sauce.
8. Drizzle the chocolate sauce anyway you want over the top of the cheesecake. Have fun and get creative with your designs. I also drizzled more plain peanut butter on top too.
9. Set in your freezer for 2 hours.
10. Store in the freezer in an air tight container for up to 5 days. Take out about 15-20 minutes before enjoying, so that it's nice & thawed out.

ENJOY!

if you make it please #THEDAILYKALE or @TheDailyKale on instagram so I can see your recreations!
Or tag/follow me on Facebook.
​

No turning on the oven.
​
Get that food processor out.
It's time.
Snack time.
Dessert time.
Whatever time.
It's the time...

It was one random night in December... we were out of chocolate. I usually always have dark chocolate bars in the house (Chocolove 77 percent is my favorite). But, we were out. Yep. So it was either- have no chocolate. OR DO SOMETHING. 

...And I did something. And since then- things have never been the same. I now do not rely on having chocolate bars in the house- when it's this easy & this good to make your own.
3 ingredients for the base of this recipe:

Cacao powder
Coconut oil
Chocolate chips
Agave or sweetener of choice

*Obviously I add the other fun stuff, nuts & seeds, etc- but the base of this is the most important part- because, duh. Chocolate.

Do you have those items? If you do, get ready to go make this!

Recipe by: The Daily Kale

​

• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1/2 cup cacao powder
• 1-2 tbsp agave or maple syrup
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (70 percent or higher)
• Pinch of salt

TOPPINGS
*optional* (add whatever you like!)

• Chia seeds
• Hemp seeds
• Pumpkin seeds
• Peanut butter or almond butter or toasted coconut butter
• Toasted coconut (highly recommend not skipping this)

 

1. I make a make shift double boiler. If you have one, by all means use it. But what I do is heat about 1 cup of water in a pot on the stove. Mix all above ingredients together in a metal bowl. Once the water is boiling I carefully put the bowl over the pot and let all ingredients melt while I'm stirring it. Soon you will have the creamiest, dreamy chocolate sauce.
2. Set aside the melted chocolate sauce. With a paper towel I spread coconut oil lightly in a small square pan- I used the tray that came with my waffle maker. It's a non stick tray. I'm not fancy. Use anything you can find that'll work! Pour the chocolate sauce into the pan. Making sure it fills out the pan completely. 
3. Sprinkle in all your 'extra' ingredients. Whatever you want! 
4. Place in freezer for 30 minutes to set.
5. Once it's set, cut with a pizza cutter into squares. Enjoy your own homemade chocolate bark.

*I store this in my freezer in an air tight container for up to 2 weeks.

If you make this recipe please share how you liked it in the comments below! 
Or tag me on instagram @thedailykale #thedailykale - I wanna see your re-creations!

Why hello there!

I am so excited to share with you maybe my favorite cookie recipe yet. I really don't make much cookies.  But when I do, I like them to be sort of fluffy and always soft & chewy. I'm not a hard, crunchy cookie type person. So if thats what your looking for, this will not be for you. Just a heads up. ;)

So back to my magical cookies. There once was a place in L.A. that I actually worked at, and lived very close to... Called Mani's Bakery. It probably was the first place I ever learned about anything to do with healthy food. Cause believe me, I had no idea. Your girl used to eat at In n Out and other fast food spots more than once a day. And I could take down a 2 liter of Mountain dew with no help needed. Pretty bad. Which is why it's strange, but good that I am where I am now. A person who can't even handle a normal amount of sugar? Craziness right ? I really can't. My heart starts beating so fast. Now back to Mani's. This place was so popular. Let me tell you. I waited on so many famous people. SO MANY. It was the perfect place! It had a whole section on the menu that was vegan. And that could be made vegetarian. And another half that was not vegan. ALL of it was healthy. They even had separate kitchens in the back for the veg. part and non veg. part. So awesome. But what probably was the coolest was that vegans & non vegans a like could come to a place & enjoy their own food together and all of it was healthy!
The other awesome part was their bakery section. After all it was called Mani's Bakery. 
They had these beautiful cookies, muffins, pies, cakes and more. So good. They were all not sweetened with sugar too. Instead they used fruit juice. So awesome. Very sad this place isn't there anymore. It's still in my dreams <3 And I'll continue to talk about how awesome it was and hopefully someday it'll reappear :)

Ok. So thanks to Mani's. I got inspired yesterday to make a cookie without sugar, butter & eggs. I think thats why I don't bake that much. It seems impossible sometimes to avoid those things. Well what will I replace it with, etc? I have the answers here for you my people! Ok. 

1 cup Sugar = 1 cup mashed bananas
1 cup butter or oil = 1 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1 egg = 1 flax or chia egg (1 tbsp. flax or chia seeds mixed with 3 tbsp water)


Kapeesh?  THAT'S IT. Now the world is yours! Go ahead and make some stuff!

These cookies I made tasted like a soft fluffy cookie/muffin. So good. Please try it!

THE DAILY KALE'S CHOCOLATE DIPPED PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES

• 1/2 cup & 1 tbsp. peanut butter, (I used no salt/no sugar added peanut butter)
• 1 cup mashed bananas
• 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1 chia egg, (1 tbsp chia seeds mixed with 3 tbsp. water)
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or gluten free flour of choice)

DIRECTIONS: cookies

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Mix together wet ingredients in a bowl. 
3. Mix together dry ingredients in a bowl.
4. Mix both wet & dry together.
5. Spoon out some dough and place on parchment paper lined pan. I wet my hands very lightly and smashed the cookies down to become a cookie shape. Don't overly wet your hand because you don't want the cookie to get to wet from doing this.
6. Cook for 8-10 minutes. Until firm, but also somewhat soft. 
7. Let cookies cool on a baking rack. 
8. Once cookies are cool you can dip them in the chocolate sauce! 
9. Place in freezer for 10 minutes to let the chocolate get set. 
10. Store in fridge & most importantly enjoy your creation! :)

CHOCOLATE SAUCE

• 1/3 cup cacao powder
• 3 tbsp. coconut oil
• 1-2 tbsp. 100% maple syrup
• pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS : chocolate sauce

1. Place all ingredients in a bowl and stir. 
2. Dip cooled cookies half way in sauce and place on a parchment paper, and freeze for 10 minutes to set cookies. Store in fridge to make sure they don't melt.

So I have this rule. 

Anything I make in my kitchen that is a dessert.... Has to be healthy. And I don't mean just saying like, Ohh I didn't use refined sugar so it's okay. Ahem, no. I have some food rules. That is for sure. As in... I don't ever have anything but whole wheat flour products.  Never will I eat white rice, or white pasta, etc. I'm a stickler. And there is more to it also than just being 'whole wheat'. MEH, that is a whole other post. Haha. Bottom line read your ingredients before you buy. And I have completely gone off on a tangent haven't I ! Geez. OK. Back to what I was saying about my desserts are super healthy. Almost to the point where I will jeopardize the consistency of what that specific dessert is supposed to be like. But hey- it still tastes great and has way less bad stuff! Like these bad boy muffins.

I wanted muffins badly yesterday morning. But no, I'm not gonna put a huge amount of sugar and maple syrup or whatever. I think thats crazy and unnecessary. So I don't do it! And by the way- the boyfriend loved them. SO thats alright, alright, alright then! 


THE DAILY KALE'S LEMON POPPY SEED MUFFINS

• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or gluten free)
• 1/2 cup coconut sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. pink salt
• 2 tbsp. poppy seeds
• 2 chia or flax eggs
• 3 tbsp. lemon juice
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
  

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Mix wet ingredients together.
3. In a separate bowl mix dry ingredients. Then mix wet & dry together and stir.
4. Grease muffin pan with coconut oil. 
5. Bake for 10-15 minutes.