Sea Salt Peanut Butter Cups

The two loves of my life are both possessors of sweet teeth.

In the past, to satisfy this craving of theirs, I would bake sugary floury treats; which I would then follow up with a full fledged, self imposed, discombobulated guilt trip that would go something like this... Why do I keep making them food that's so awful for their bodies ?!... but it makes them so happy!!  
Ya catch my dilemma?

Here's the dealio...  we all love to indulge from time to time. Or often (if you're us)

By trying to stop ourselves, we just crave "what we can't have" even more.

So, I've decided that if I'm going to splurge (and I know I will) I might as well make sure I'm delivering some sort of nourishment that my body can use along with the sugar... seeing as how I'm going to eat it anyways!

And I can attest, I feel a WHOLE lot better about feeding these sorts of treats to my loved ones.

Here are some peanut butter cups I created around a recipe I found in Alicia Silverstone's book/cookbook 'The Kind Diet'. I just LOVE her.

Her recipe is super delicious... but I felt it could offer a tad more nutrition. So, I took her version and made them smaller in size with less sugar, less added fats, plus a bit o'fiber. Then, just to gild the lily, added a sprinkle of sea salt on top.


Here's my version:

Melt together:  
1/2 C Crunchy Peanut Butter ( I used natural unsweetened, salted PB with added flax seeds) 
1/4 C  ground oats (i just gave mine a whirl in the magic bullet, but you could use a food processor)
2 T Coconut Oil
2 T Earth Balance Butter
2 T Maple Sugar

Spoon into 12 lined mini muffin cups. Place in freezer until hardened to the touch.

Meanwhile, melt together:
3 oz Semi-sweet baking chocolate
2 T non-dairy milk

Top peanut butter cups with chocolate, sprinkle with slivered almonds, then top with a few turns of freshly cracked sea salt and return to fridge until firm.

Store these in your refrigerator, snack away at your leisure, and feel good about it. Dammit
See... we can have our cake and eat it too.

What are your tricks for making indulgent foods a little bit healthier?

PS you can register to win your own copy of  'The Kind Diet' here!
 

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