Happy chocolate week!

The days leading up to valentines involve trying a couple of chocolate recipes. We had a really sweet moment surrounding these treats this morning. My nineteen-month-old cutie pie Patrick was dancing on the kitchen table, as our jazzy “tea dance” music played, and while I finished cleaning up after breakfast. When I was done I went ahead and pulled these chocolate cups I made last night out of the fridge for a quick taste test. I needed to see if we were going to go ahead and take pictures and give them a home here on the blog. I tasted one and I knew they were worthy. I gave Patrick a taste and he started dancing a little more furiously, shaking and exclaiming “more! more! more!”. I am not sure how obvious it is from the photo, but these cups are quite large, so we just shared the one for time-being.  I can’t wait to indulge in another with him later.

I really love chocolate covered fruit. Cherries, berries, oranges, bananas. What about you? I knew we would make our own chocolate-covered berries while we eat chocolate fondue after our valentines dinner, so I decided to try some chocolate cups with freshly made chia seed strawberry jam instead of regular chocolate covered berries. If you’ve never made your own chocolate cups at home, it’s a very simple process that involves melting chocolate and placing it in a silicone muffin mold, and then letting it set in the fridge for 15 minutes. Afterward, you place your filling, and melt the remaining chocolate, and pour over what you’ve filled your cup with. You could use coconut mana for delicious bounty bars, peanut or almond butter for your traditional peanut butter cups, fresh fruit, or in this case – make some delicious and healthy chia seed jam.

Although I’ve never made it myself, my understanding is that regular homemade jam seems intimidating, and takes a lot of fruit and sugar. Chia seed jam is far more nutritious, only takes a few minutes, has minimal ingredients, is 100% refined sugar-free, and is ready within minutes. With all that said, I don’t mean to diss traditional homemade jam. When my mother law comes to visit soon we decided we would make pineapple ginger jam (the traditional way) and I really am excited. But, you can’t deny chia seed jam is a quick, convenient and healthy alternative.

Chia seeds pack a powerful punch. They are extremely nutrient-dense, with very few calories. Because of its high soluble fiber content, chia seeds can absorb up to 10 times their weight in water, becoming gel-like, which makes them a perfect ingredient in jam. They and contain a decent amount of protein. I buy our chia seeds locally because they are sold in a paper bag vs a large plastic container, making them a more environmentally friendly option.

My daughter loves it with her peanut butter sandwiches, and I love it on homemade shortbread cookies, so I always have some made.

I used Lilly’s dark chocolate chips in this recipe because they are vegan and made with stevia making them this treat delectable without spiking your blood sugar too much.

I do not add any sweetener to the jam in this recipe, but you’re welcome to! A tablespoon of honey would work great.

Ready for the recipe?

[cooked-recipe id=”3999″]

If you make this recipe, let me know if you loved it, and tag me on instagram at recipes.and.rituals. For more recipes like this one, give me a follow there!

I hope you enjoy chocolate week and have a romantic valentines day.