Lucky for me I found this recipe here on Pintrest that I decided to give a try...although I modified it a little. But instead of just soaking 1 cup of hazelnut last night, I decided to soak 3, so I could also make some hazelnut milk with it as well! Hazelnut milk also happens to be my favorite non-dairy milk out there, but it also happens to be the only one that DOES NOT come in the "unsweetened" variety at the store. :(
So one more reason to go "homemade" with these little fellas!
They are a little different than I expected. They are pretty crunchy, even after being soaked all night, but they have a light feel to it once you chew and eat it. It doesn't seem to give you that "fill you up" feeling you get from cashews or peanuts. But don't let that fool you, 1 cup of these little fellas carry on a whooping 70g of fat and 11g of fiber!
Don't let that scare you either...because they also happen to be pretty potent anti-inflammatory and packed with nutrition as well, such as vitamin C (12% DV), Iron (30% DV), Calcium (13%), Protein (34% DV), Vitamin E (86% DV), K, Thiamin (49% DV), Niacin (10% DV), B6 (32% DV), Folate (32% DV), Magnesium (47% DV), Manganese (355% DV), Copper (99% DV), Zinc (19% DV), Phosphorus (33% DV), Potassium (22% DV)...among others. (You can find out more about hazelnut -->here<--).
One great thing about eating an almost vegan diet is that you can load up on fats that come packed with great nutrition, but none of the cholesterol and harmful/toxic bi-products of animal consumption!
Most junk we eat leave our bodies depleted of nutrients. Empty calories, filled with chemicals and toxins like sugar, places a heavy load on our bodies in order to process them. So not only are we not "adding" any nutrition to our bodies when we consume these products, but we're actually depleting ourselves from the nutrients we already have! Not good.
But let not your heart be troubled! Our Creator has left us with plenty of good food that will not only give us the energy we need, but give the nutrition that we need as well. :)
As stated above, you can find the recipe for this Nutella -->here<--
-Instead of Maple Syrup, I used 1 cup of dates soaked and blended in a little bit of the water it was being soaked in, until it turned into a nice paste.
-Did not use coconut oil, instead added a bit less than 1/4 cup of dark chocolate chips melted.
-Did not use almond milk, used hazelnut milk that I had made today as well.
Once I was done with the milk, what to do with all that leftover pulp??? That's when I looked at my big bucket of dates and thought...uhmmm....why not some hazelnut date truffles???
YUM!!! I later froze both into ziplock bags, so we can just eat them as little treats. My daughter already had one and was asking fore more! ;)
Cheers!