I am still getting back in “the swing” from the holidays, although last week was much smoother on all fronts and a full work week got done leaving me the weekend to catch up on chores and even putter in the kitchen a bit.

I saw the recipe for these bars and liking absolutely everything in them and the fact that there is no refined sugar and no flour of any kind…they were first up on my fun list. Medjool dates provide the sweet as well as the stickiness for binding the rest of the ingredients: nuts, cocoa, coconut and a little salt. Fresh from California, Medjool dates are currently in my favorite natural food store and they are so plump and fresh that I skipped the soaking in water step in the recipe.

These are Mom’s Kitchen Handbook Chocolate Coconut Bars.

The bars are chewy and delicious. I used walnuts and almonds per the recipe. BUT, I was tempted to use the hazelnuts that I had just skinned and roasted in place of the walnuts and will try that next time.

What I did use some of the hazelnuts for was a try at hazelnut cream using the same process as for cashew cream. The cashew cream is made with raw cashews and has no taste of cashews. Making the hazelnut cream with roasted hazelnuts…good golly!! – the cream tastes like liquid, creamy hazelnuts.

I didn’t use the hazelnuts in the bars this time, but I did make a hazelnut cream egg nog this morning to go with a bar or two. YUM!

And not only is today, Monday, yet another sunny day … 5 or 6 in a row in mid-January in Montana – yowza!! …

A bit of California sunshine-in-a-box arrived on Saturday: Meyer Lemons from Lemon Ladies Orchard.

Happy Monday!