These are simple, delicious and nutritious! Coconut is warming in nature, sweet and strengthening to the heart and brain. It’s an excellent source of saturated fat! It’s been proven that diets high in good fats, like coconut, and protein (ketogenic diet) and no carbohydrates (other than veggies) improves brain function by 25% (source: “Primal Body Primal Mind”) and is used in the treatment of such dis-ease patterns as epilepsy, Alzheimer, heart disease -high blood pressure, traumatic brain injury, ADD/ADHD, Autism and Asperger. Coconut butter is warm, sweet in flavor and nourishes yin. Sunflower seeds are warming in nature, sweet and support the spleen-pancrease. They tonify qi, increase energy, and are also used to treat symptoms of constipation due to dryness. They are high in polyunsaturated fatty acid so keep them in the freezer to avoid rancidity, best if taken and eaten right from the shell. Hemp seeds are high in protein, iron, zinc, magnesium, Vitamin E, riboflavin, Omega-3 and Omega-6 GLA.

Ingredients

  • 3 cups dried coconut (I use the small pieces or shreds)
  • 1 ½ cups ground up raw sunflower seeds (like 1 cup sunflower seed ground and ½ cup almond meal and then I add ¼ cup hemp seeds for fun) (You can use any nut or seed as long as it is ground into flour, which I do with the food processor)
  • ¼ cup coconut butter or oil or a combination of both
  • 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup sweetener (I use a combination of coconut syrup and monk fruit, or raw honey) If you don’t have a sweet tooth you may use less sweetener but my experience is they tend to crumble more. This doesn’t bother us because we eat them from a bowl with a spoon and drizzle chocolate over them!
  • Variation: 3 Tbsp cacao powder added to the mix

Preparation

Mix dry ingredients (if you want chocolate macaroons then add raw cacao powder to dry ingredients)
Mix wet ingredients
Then combine them all
Place in freezer for 10 minutes
Form little balls the size of golf balls and dehydrate at 105 degrees for 12-14 hrs. If they seem more crumbly you could make patties instead of balls.

Variation

Dip in melted raw cacao and cacao butter with a spoonful of honey! Make this sauce by melting 2 Tbsp raw cacao butter or coconut oil with 2 Tbsp raw cacao powder and 1-2 Tbsp coconut syrup or add honey after it’s melted (don’t heat honey). Then dip ½ of each dehydrated macaroon and chill for 30 minutes to set chocolate.

These are absolutely to Live for

Bon Appetit!