This week we'll explore dark chocolate and a special Matcha Strawberry Swirl Freezer Fudge recipe. We'll also delve into a story about the biggest birds in the world (who now have chicks!) and thoughts about finding your wildness.

Eat Colorfully

Seasonal Ingredient Spotlight

With Valentine's Day coming up this week, how could we not talk about chocolate? Although chocolate sometimes gets a bad reputation for being unhealthy, the reality is that it's loaded with powerful antioxidants and is also high in heart-healthy fats, iron, magnesium, and some harder-to-get nutrients like copper and manganese.

If you want to get the greatest benefit from chocolate treats this Valentine's Day, opt for dark chocolate of at least 70-75% cacao (it's highest in the above nutrients) and try to choose lower-sugar options both with regards to the chocolate itself and what you're using it in. There are some great dairy-free, minimally-sweetened, ethically sourced chocolate bars available, especially at artisan food stores.

My absolute favorite indulgent chocolatey treats are these Vegan Snickers Brownies. They're high in protein, get most of their sweetness and structure from dates, and are entirely plant-based and grain-free. I also have Vegan Samoa Brownies on my blog that are a similar concept but have a coconut caramel topping inspired by the classic Girl Scout Cookies. Or, if you're looking for a special holiday breakfast, check out these Vegan Mocha Banana Blender Muffins.

Special Recipe: Matcha Strawberry Swirl Freezer Fudge

If you're looking for a special (but secretly healthy) Valentine's Day treat, you have to try this adorable freezer fudge. It's easy to make, vegan, and naturally sweetened, plus it has some protein and healthy fats thanks to cashew butter. This recipe isn't available on my blog; it's just for you all, my wonderful newsletter friends. Happy Valentine's Day and thank you for being part of this community!

My biggest tip for making this pretty treat: make sure you have really good matcha. Not all matcha is created equal; in fact, there are several different grades. A high-quality matcha is delicate, bright green, subtly floral, and fresh, whereas lower-quality matcha can be bitter, assertively grassy, and off-putting. My go-to is Matcha Nude (use the code ROGUE to get 15% off).

Ingredients:

• 14-oz jar of smooth, natural, raw cashew butter (I like Artisana brand)
• ½ c melted coconut oil
• ¼ c maple syrup
• 1-2 tsp matcha
• ½ c freeze-dried strawberries, divided

Directions:

1. Line a bread pan with wax paper or several layers of plastic wrap, leaving enough on the sides so that you can pull the fudge out after it sets.
2. In a small mixing bowl, combine the cashew butter, melted coconut oil, and maple syrup, then stir until creamy and homogeneous. Divide the mixture in half into two separate bowls.
3. To half of the freezer fudge mixture, add the matcha and mix.
4. Chop the freeze-dried strawberries as finely as possible and stir most of them into the other half of the freezer fudge mixture, reserving about a tablespoon for sprinkling on the top.
5. Pour most of the matcha freezer fudge mixture into the prepared bread pan, then add dollops of the strawberry mixture on top, then finish with the rest of the matcha mixture. Use a knife to swirl the two together.
6. Sprinkle the remaining freeze-dried strawberries across the top of the fudge, pressing them down lightly into the surface so they stick.
7. Cover the loaf pan with plastic wrap and place it in the freezer. Freeze overnight.
8. Remove the fudge from the freezer. Using the sides of the wax paper or plastic wrap, pull the fudge out of the pan. Make two cuts length-wise and five cuts width-wise to create 18 portions.
9. Store the fudge in the freezer in an air-tight container for up to several weeks. Serve directly out of the freezer.

Live Colorfully

In the Natural World

I have very exciting news to share: some of the albatross eggs we've been keeping an eye on have hatched! Albatross are the largest birds in the world and we're very fortunate to be able to live alongside them here on Kaua'i. In mid-December, we started doing near-daily checks of the albatross nests near us. And now, as of just this past week, we finally have chicks!

These incredible bird parents have been incubating their eggs continuously for about 60 days. Each mating pair only lays a single egg, and it's always such an incredible gift to start seeing those eggs hatch. The adorable little chicks are tiny gray fluffballs with little black beaks and soulful black eyes. They spend most of their time nestled under their parents, but we can catch glimpses of them when they get fed.

We've been amazed to witness the tenderness of these feedings. The two parents alternate returning with full bellies and opening their mouths to regurgitate fish (yum) for the tiny chick to eat. It's incredibly intimate, with the parent sheltering the chick beneath its wing and continuously nuzzling and caressing the chick with its beak. Sometimes the parents make gentle cooing noises to the chick. The two of them will spend about eight months total caring for this single offspring, and it's clear from their mannerisms that the chick is incredibly precious.

We're always awed and humbled to be able to spend our winter months alongside these amazing rare birds. Unfortunately our time on Kaua'i has now come to an end for this year, but we'll be thinking every day of the fluffy little chicks who, by the end of summer, will be ready to fledge from their nests and soar out over the ocean for the first time.

Self-Care Pick

Do you know how to find your inner wildness? Are you living in your wildness, or have you been tamed by society? This is something I've been thinking about a lot lately, so I wanted to pose the question here.

Some of you are probably familiar with Glennon Doyle's book Untamed, which is one of my favorites that I usually re-read once a year. What's really speaking to me now is the prologue, which is a story about seeing a cheetah in a zoo who has been trained to show off her speed by chasing a stuffed pink rabbit. The cheetah has lost her wildness, at least on the surface, because it has been trained out of her. But she still knows that she's wild inside.

As many of you know, my husband and I move seasonally and spend winters on the northernmost Hawaiian island. Here, I have found my wildness... or maybe I re-found it, coming full circle back to my childhood. On this little island, I'm freed from societal expectations, societal norms, and the pressure to fit in. I find a level of inner peace and meditative quiet that I don't experience elsewhere. Here, I hike to for miles barefoot, swim in the ocean alongside sea turtles, and finish every day with sand on my feet and twigs in my hair. I watch every sunrise and every sunset, and always know the stars and planets.

What does the idea of wildness mean to you? For women in particular, do you feel like you've been slowly tamed out of your wildness? Most importantly, how are you going to find (or re-find) your inner wildness? As Glennon Doyle notes in Untamed, maybe there's not something wrong with you if you're having trouble conforming... maybe you're just a cheetah.

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Thanks for joining me for this issue of Eat Colorfully, Live Colorfully! I'd love to hear from you, so please feel free to reply with questions, thoughts, or requests. If you missed a previous issue, you can view all my newsletters here. Have a great week!