Holiday Special
Video Transcript
Welcome to Food Exposed on empowerme.tv. My name is Jackie Keller, and for
the last 26 years, I’ve spent my time dedicated to helping people live
longer, healthier lives through better nutrition, and healthy cooking.
Speaking of healthy cooking, today, we’re making deliciously healthy white
and dark chocolate delights. They’re easy, quick and they make a great gift
from the heart; let’s get cooking. There are three key ingredients that
make this recipe very special. First, chocolate and who doesn’t love
chocolate. You know, chocolate is one of those universally favorite foods.
It is good for the heart, it’s good for the soul, makes you happy and it
comes in lots of different flavors.
This one is a mint and chocolate blend. You can also use white chocolate
for these. In fact, we call them white and dark chocolate delights. White
chocolate has some of the same flavonols and heart healthy benefits as dark
chocolate but it comes only in this white color. So make sure, when you
pick your brand, you pick a brand that you know will melt. The other key
ingredient that makes this recipe special, is cereal nuggets. Now these are
high fiber, crunchy little bites of cereal. You can find them in every
grocery store, on every grocery store aisle. They’re high in fiber, they’re
low in sodium and fat and they provide so much nutritional benefit. You
want to make sure you have these on hand.
And finally, speaking of nutritional benefits, here’s our powerhouse
ingredient, chopped almonds. Almonds, as you know, are very high in omega
three fatty acids. They’re really healthful, they protect your heart, they
are good for your skin, for your eyes, for your hair, for your whole body
and of course, they taste wonderful and they’re available all year round.
Now that we know what ingredients you’ll need on hand and that is the
entire set of ingredients for this simple recipe, let me show you how easy
it is to make. All you need to do is set up a little double boiler system
in your own kitchen. Now, that can be done without any fancy equipment, a
stainless steel pot, a non-reactive bowl, preferably glass that will
withstand the heat, and also allow you to set it inside of your pot; over
simmering water, not rapidly boiling. So the water should be sufficient to
come to a boil and stay at a simmer while the chocolate is melting.
I’ve set this one up so the chocolate is nearly melted. It just takes a few
minutes; and once it’s melted, you’re going to stir it, so that your
chocolate is ready to accept the other key ingredients. Watch your hands,
the bowl can get hot. Into your chocolate goes some of your nutty cereal.
Your cereal, you need about for one 12 ounce package of chocolate, you’re
going to need about a cup of cereal. The exact recipe can be found on
empowerme.tv. And, you stir it in, and then, add in your almonds. And
again, stirring, just to get the ingredients melted it helps to have a pan
that has a cool handle.
Once you have everything mixed together, you’re ready to scoop it out. And
what you’ll need to that, is a simple cookie scoop. You can find them in
all different kinds of sizes at your favorite food store. This one came
from, I don’t even know. It’s just a little cookie scoop. And that’s all
you need to form your balls of nutty delights. Once you have them formed,
they’re going to go onto a plate, where you’re going to want to refrigerate
them until they are hard; now that can take a few minutes, depending on
your refrigerator, or an hour or so. So all you do is set up your balls,
set up all your mixture. And if you’re making one recipe of this, it’s
going to produce about 22 balls. They’re about a half an ounce each. And
once you’re done with that, into the refrigerator to cool down. If you want
you can use your fingers to make them form into nice perfect little balls.
And the recipe is ready now to package. It’s that easy. You have your
choice of how you package these things as gifts.
I like coffee, so I take a coffee mug and a food bag and I fill my bag with
our nuggets. Both colors, I think, make it look really festive and nice.
Fill them up. And then, go ahead and splurge on a colorful twisty tie;
little gold one, just to make the packaging pretty. And you’re going to
insert that right into your coffee cup, so that you have a nice gift that’s
ready to go. If you don’t like the top showing, no problem, turn it upside
down and you have a beautiful gift, just like that. Or, you might want to
think about buying one of these little decorative heart baskets or
different shapes. They come in all kinds of shapes. And arrange your
nuggets or your delights, if you will, into the basket, mounded as high as
you like, because everyone’s going to enjoy them and they’re not going to
last for long. Even though, you should know, that these nuggets do not
require refrigeration once they’re made, so they make the ideal gift to
ship anywhere in the country, if they last that long. Or you could take a
decorative jar, fill them with your nuggets and put it out on the corner of
your desk for your friends and your family to enjoy.
Packaging is one of those things that is a very individual choice. I like
the natural bows but they’re not as colorful as say, you know the frilly,
pretty Christmas-y things that you can find. So it’s up to you what you put
on it. But quite simply, everything comes back to how it tastes once you
enjoy these little pieces of paradise. So, simply assemble your gift. And
thanks for joining us. For this recipe and more like it, visit us at
empowerme.tv and don’t forget to tune in, in January for more Food Exposed.
Have a healthy and happy holiday season.