Cacao Pops

Did you know that Kellogs Coco Pops contain 11g of sugar per serve? Having it with milk? Better make that 18g of sugar. That works out to be about 4 teaspoons of sugar in each serve! Now, I don't know about you, but I can pretty much guarantee that if I'm pouring myself a bowl of cereal, it's a lot bigger than the 30g serving size that these sugar amounts are based on. And, if recommendations suggest that adults should consumer a total of 5-9 teaspoons each day (kids about 3 teaspoons), we could be eating close to our full daily intake of sugar before our morning coffee.

What if I told you I had an alternative that had the antioxidants of cacao powder, the protein of buckwheat, the heart-loving properties of coconut oil and was fructose-free thanks to the use of rice malt syrup as a sweetener? You can thank me later.

Enjoy served with milk as a cereal or scattered on smoothie bowls for a burst of chocolatey crunch!

Ingredients

1/3 cup coconut oil 1/3 cup rice malt syrup 1/4 cup tahini (or other seed or nut butter) 1/4 cup cacao powder 4 cups puffed brown rice 1 cup buckwheat groats

Method

Preheat oven to 160°C. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine coconut oil, syrup, tahini and cacao powder. Mix until combined then remove from heat. In a large bowl combine puffed rice and buckwheat. Pour chocolate mixture over the rice and buckwheat and stir thoroughly until well-coated. Spread in a thin layer on a baking-paper lined tray. Bake for 10 minutes or until mixture begins to crisp, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. Mixture will continue to crisp once removed from the oven.

Makes 5 cups.