Healthy Treats | Easter Blessings from the Bird’s Nest!
Happy Easter!
I hope you are all enjoying this fine day with loved ones. The day began very early for us, in fact I think I was awake much of the night last night. I was too excited to sleep; do you ever have those kind of nights?
Why no sleep?
Well, today we planned to attend the 31st Sunrise Easter Celebration on Marco Beach. I have never attended an Easter celebration on the beach. We had to leave the house by 6 am and we weren’t sure what kind of traffic/parking issues we would encounter. As it turned out, both were non-issues. We breezed to the beach and found the one of the two southbound lanes onto the island had been converted to parking!
As we stepped onto the sand the sky had begun to brighten, groups of people were arriving from every direction!
By the time we sat down in our beach chairs, I could tell this was going to be a wonderful celebration; the eastern sky was just beginning to wake up!
Boats were arriving…
ready to drop anchor near the shores! And people continued to come!
For the next 15 minutes…
we watched brilliant colors of the sunrise come alive while accompanied by flute and piano.
The Easter message…
was beautiful, a message of hope! Certainly something needed for so many in this world who are hurting, and feeling hopeless. Our crowd had grown to the thousands, some said over 5,000. We closed with a beautiful song, one we sang together.
Amazing Grace…
played by Eirinn Abu. Check out this link, I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I.
And then, the crowd dispersed. People heading in all directions, boats lifting anchors. We were home in 15 minutes.
As we arrived home, I began thinking about many people who live around me, many of us without family on this day. A few had mentioned how sad they felt for I felt it too! The day was young so I decided to share a little happiness with a few neighbors.
So I flew to the kitchen, grabbed Walter, the trusty food processor and dark chocolate!
I mean who doesn’t love an Easter Basket? I’ll make one! So I did, I made Bird style Dark Chocolate Almond Joys and Peanut Butter cups!
Bird’s Joys!
- Unsweetened Coconut (1 ½ cups)
- Maple Syrup (2 tbsp.)
- Organic Coconut Oil (2 tbsp.)
- Vanilla (1 tsp)
- Sea Salt (dash)
- Dark Chocolate
- Raw Almonds (soaked overnight and rinsed)
- Optional: White chocolate for drizzle
I threw everything but the chocolate and almonds into the food processor. Pulsed away until everything was well combined and then shaped the mixture into little egg shapes. Well okay, I did my best Add a little almond in the top of each egg and then into the freezer for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile…
the chocolate was melting nicely in a bowl over boiling water on the stove. I added a tablespoon of Coconut Oil to thin the chocolate; I find it coats the candy better! Don’t add too much though, we don’t want a water consistency. Grab the eggs out of the freezer and drizzle chocolate over the bottom of each egg. Freeze for 10 minutes, and then place the eggs on a rack drizzle the tops with chocolate. Why a rack you may ask? I find the eggs are easier to remove and the chocolate doesn’t pool around the base of the candy. Make sense? Freeze for another 10 minutes.
White chocolate perhaps?
Right-o! Melt a little white chocolate to add a little Easter pizzazz! Drizzle away!
Now if this insanity isn’t enough for you….
I was making another chocolate…
at the same time! On the other side of the kitchen! Yes, I know one crazy bird. I wanted to have a nice little basket for these folks and I didn’t know how much time I had. No worries, these treats only have 2 ingredients! Chocolate and Natural Peanut Butter! Luckily I made a double batch of melted dark chocolate! I lined little candy molds with my hot chocolate, placed them in the freezer for a few.
Top with a dollop…
Of peanut butter and seal the top with hot chocolate! Freeze for about 30 minutes!
Equal drizzle…
For all! A little blue for Easter, nice!
Whew! Baskets done in time! Happy Easter my friends!
That’s all for today my sweet Foodie friends! Thanks for taking time to stop by on this beautiful Easter holiday!
And as always, blessings to you all
Happy Easter to you and all the Bird family my friend!
I've only been to one sunrise service (not being an early bird!) and it was beautiful, thank you for sharing this with us.
Love your choc baskets, oh how lucky are your neighbours to have gotten those!
Same to you @lizelle! It was a lovely day. This was my first as well, they asked how many people had been coming each year and many hands were raised. Only one person had come all 31 years! I hope you had a fabulous day as well, thanks so much my friend!
WOW those look so good and it sounds like a wonderful day, Amazing Grace is one of my favorite songs so I think it was the perfect song to finish off with
As for not sleeping when to excited, it does happen to me sometimes, when it does I give up and do not even try to sleep, but often I go to sleep OK and wake well before when I need to be up and know there no point in trying to sleep any more
Thank you @tattoodjay, I love that song as well, I cry everytime I hear it. I'm so glad we were able to attend, it was a certainly a morning to remember. As for the sleep, needless to say we slept well last night, lol
It is such a touching song as for sleep I think I will tonight I normally sleep fine but last night for no apparent reason I just couldn’t sleep so have been struggling today lol 😂
Wow, those look so tasty and you make it look so easy to make them. I'd have a huge mess and we'd all be covered in chocolate!! The service sounds delightful and in an amazing location. How nice!!
Hi! Glad to see you! Well, I'm not going to say I wasn't covered in chocolate because I was, lol In fact my husband noticed chocolate on one of the cabinet handles in the kitchen this morning.....geesh Oh well. The service was nice, truly special Thanks @thepanamamama! :)
Ha ha! I would have a bunch of kids helping too and it would just multiply the mess... Lol!
What an interesting way to spend Easter :) It's very unusual but kind of cool to go to the beach. I like it! I will suggest it to my husband for next year :) Hope the weather will be good too.
So much chocolate! It looks like it's the favorite treat of your family :) I didn't do any treats this year as I was very well served by my mother in law but next year I will have to do it all by myself so I am happy that I got the inspiration from you :)
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What a wonderful morning. I think I would have cried at the singing of Amazing Grace with all those people. There is nothing like the sound of many voices singing an incredible song together. The Easter chocolates look fabulous!
Oh yes, I did cry but then I always do :) Touches my heart every time. Amazing grace is so beautiful and Mr. Abu played beautifully, I love the saxophone anyway. Thank you @jayna, it was a very special morning.
Damn... the double whammy of a magnificent hope-full Easter sunrise celebration with chocolate yummies too! We dont celebrate Easter in Asia but your post made my heart smile. Shared to the @c-squared curation community for you. 🐤
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lol, you're too sweet @artemislives, thank you! It was a wonderful morning, both the music and the message were beautiful. Thank you for sharing my post to c-squared :) You're the best!