I’m heading into the final week of a two-week stay in Puerto Vallarta. It’s hot. I’m trying to work, workout, relax, and cook. As usual, I’ve taken on a lot and can’t really call this a vacation though it’s had its moments. And I still have a week, so maybe I can revive a little vacation-y spirit!
I’ve been completely inspired by the colors, patterns, flavors and tropical magic that surrounds me here and have been channeling that into my dishes. This is a delicious healthy pecan dessert that’s incredibly easy and versatile: you can make just the candied nuts and serve them as a snack, you can improvise and use whatever seasonings you have handy. You can’t really go wrong with sweet and savory in the same bite, and there’s so much room for creativity here! I’ll be sharing more of my favorite sweet/salty nut combos in future posts.
Please keep in mind, I make all this up and taste as I go. I don’t follow recipes, so this will be a challenge to actually write down what I’m doing. Here we go! I encourage you to freestyle and experiment as well and use my “recipes” as guides:
1 serving:
10-12 pecans
1 tbls coconut or avocado oil (I find coconut gives better flavor, though I used avo in the above creation)
1 tsp chili/salt/lime spice
2 tsp agave nectar (you can also use liquid coconut sugar or honey, pure maple syrup or skip the sweetness all together)
Are you ready? This is so crazy easy – gently heat the pecans in the oil and immediately add the seasonings and agave – stir occasionally for about 5 minutes. That’s it! What? YUP!
Add to the top of frozen bananas, frozen coconut milk, or some other non-sweetened frozen treat…ooooh, freeze some plain Greek yogurt and put this on top for an amazing high-protein treat! In my version above I put the pecans on top of a half eaten (cuz I’ve been snackin) sprouted, organic whole wheat tortilla and added frozen coconut milk to the top. It’s all organic except for the nut part.
Take a pic of your creation and share it with me!
