Dark chocolate & figs oat bars

How is your January going so far? I’m still having a bit of that winter-in-the-city blues because days are so short and most of the time it’s very dark outside what makes it difficult to shoot and also to get up early in the morning! No matter how early I go to sleep, I feel so tired in the mornings and have to fight the urge to cover with my duvet over the head and hide from the world. Anybody else have this problem?

Anyway, I think it’s quite normal to feel this way from time to time and I know it will get better soon so in the meantime I just need to do all those things that help. Like having a walk out in the fresh air, a long chat and laugh with a friend, light candles for cozy mood at home, watch light and funny TV shows, have lots of black and herbal teas and my beloved chicory coffee and of course dark chocolate! 😀

Those of you who follow me already for a while here on the blog know my love for dark chocolate and how I think it solves most of the world’s problems lol! 😉 I mean, you know how I love all the beautiful fruit & veg too and lots of other delicious food but chocolate has special place in my heart.

If you are the same but eating possibly too much of milk chocolate, I would encourage you to switch to dark one (64%, 70% or even 80% cacao) as it’s so much healthier due to higher cacao content, has much less sugar and it also tastes way better, specially when you get used to slightly bitter taste. You can start by introducing chocolates with higher cacao content and see how it goes, personally I used to eat a lot of milk chocolate and loved it and now honestly I can’t even taste it how sweet it is, like I can’t feel chocolate at all but just sugar. I promise this is what happens!

Anyway, I am always here to maybe give some suggestion from my own perspective and experience but there is NO judging on these pages and everybody should decide for themselves what and how to eat. I absolutely hate when people who switched to healthier diets behave like snobs and judge people who eat the same way that they were eating until yesterday! Can we just all respect each other and appreciate every little step, no matter how small it is, to eat better and do what fits and agrees with our bodies?

Now let’s talk a bit about this recipe. I had some beautiful dried figs that my parents brought from Dubrovnik when they visited for holidays and besides snacking on them as they are and putting in my oatmeal I was looking for a good way to use them. While browsing through Pinterest I found this amazing recipe for Dark chocolate & figs oat bars by Broma Bakery and as soon as I saw those photos I knew that’s what I have to make! Now, you know how I like to make desserts a bit healthier when possible so I made some adjustment to the original recipe and replaced butter with coconut oil, sugar with coconut sugar (that is natural sweetener produced from the sap of cut flower buds of the coconut palm and has lower glycemic index), all-purpose flour with spelt flour and some other minor changes and  got these amazing bars that melt in your mouth! If you want to make the original version go check out Broma Bakery’s fantastic recipe and if you want to try my version, stay tuned for the recipe! 🙂

Recipe in English:

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