Dark Chocolate Cashew Bark with Fresh Mint from The Moon Cycle Cookbook
My friend Devon Loftus launched The Moon Cycle Bakery in 2017 – which delivers sweet treats designed to help people during different stages of their menstrual cycle. And now she’s helping you do it at home! She teamed up with nutritionist Jenna Radomski to create their new book, The Moon Cycle Cookbook: A Holistic Nutrition Guide for a Well-Balanced Menstrual Cycle. It’s got sweets, savory meals, and snacks that are organized around the four phases of the menstrual cycle.
I got a chance to read the book a few months back (I wrote an endorsement for it), and I learned so much from this book! Especially how to treat my body a little better during each phase of my cycle.
I asked Devon if I could share a little preview recipe here, and she gave me two options. I took a little poll on Insta…and this Dark Chocolate Bark won (sorry to all the Brussels Sprouts voters, it was a tight race).
Check out the recipe and pre-order the book. It’s out in October and available in the US, Canada, UK, and Australia!
{ Dark Chocolate Cashew Bark with Fresh Mint }
Luteal Phase
8 ounces dark chocolate (70% cacao or higher), chopped
2 tablespoons coconut oil
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh mint
1/4 cup chopped unsalted raw cashews
Flaky sea salt, for topping
1. Line a small baking sheet with waxed paper or a silicone baking mat, and set aside.
2. Place the chocolate and coconut oil in a microwavable bowl. Melt the chocolate in the microwave at high power for about 1 minute, stopping to stir every 20 seconds, until smooth and shiny.
3. Add 2 tablespoons of the mint to the bowl and stir well. Carefully pour the chocolate onto the prepared baking sheet. Using a spatula, scrape all the chocolate from the bowl, then spread the chocolate to an even 1/4-inch thickness.
4. Evenly sprinkle the chopped cashews, the remaining 1 tablespoon mint, and a pinch of salt over the chocolate. Transfer to the refrigerator for 30 minutes, or until set.
5. Remove the chocolate from the refrigerator and use the tip of a knife to break the bark into pieces.
Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
My kitchen note: If you don’t have a microwave (like me), you can melt the chocolate this way on the stove!
Should I Be…? Podcast is coming!
Remember when I said I wanted to leave the door open for more podcasting? Well, duh, it’s because I knew I’d want to do another one at some point! And six months later, here we are!
It’s called Should I Be…? In this podcast, I’ll be asking all the questions to all the people whose jobs we think we want, so we can figure out if we really want them. Over the last couple of years, a lot of us have been asking some pretty deep questions about our careers and how we make our money. Is my current job the one I should really should be doing? Is there something more “me” out there? Is it too late for me to go back to school? Should my job be more meaningful - or is it ok to just get my check and go watch more TV/have a bigger life outside of work?
These questions have been swirling in my head, too - and we’re gonna get to the bottom of them together! Each week, we’ll feature a new career/job with someone whose doing it really well. I’ll ask all the nosey questions you want to know, and more.
It’s coming out October 5th with eight episodes, and it’ll be running on the One Part Podcast feed (subscribe again, if you unsubscribed!). It’s going to be light, fun, maybe a little bit deep…but mostly light and fun. Not sure about you, but I need some light and fun right now.
Here’s a preview of some episodes + guests:
Should I Be a Yoga Teacher with Kathryn Budig
Should I Be a Therapist/Social Worker with Amber Murphy
Should I Be in Food Media with Joseph Hernandez
Should I Be a Dietician with Jessica Jones of Food Heaven
Should I Be a Ceramicist with Bari Ziperstein
I want to leave some of the guests as a surprise, so we’ll stop there.
So excited for you to listen. We’ll have a new theme song, too!
Sant’Ana = THE BEST OLIVE OIL!
We still haven’t found a new house yet, so we’ve been bouncing from place to place. All of our stuff is in storage, and we each have one suitcase, some books, Legos, my bulky sauna blanket (annoyingly necessary), and this Sant’Ana olive oil. Yes, I’ve been traveling with this oil. We’ve been in some grimy hotels and Airbnbs, and this oil has made it feel like we’re staying in 5-star luxury. And it’s been making my sometimes-sub-par-don’t-have-all-my-kitchen-stuff meals better. I am OBSESSED with it.
Sant’Ana’s oils are from the island of Crete and are super-duper flavorful AND some bottles are combined with whole flower CBD. They aren’t promising this olive is gonna give you less anxiety, it’s all about the flavor and the other cool properties of the flower. You can actually taste the flower! This is how Sant’Ana describes the flavor on their site: We use a strain with high amounts of the cannabinoid and terpene Caryophyllene for its spicy black peppercorn notes. When combined with Cretan olive oil, the resulting blend is warm, woody with a distinct cannabis flavor to evoke the desert from which it hails. It’s so, so good!
I was messaging with the founder of Sant’Ana (the company is woman-owned) about my obsession, and she offered up a discount to our newsletter family. $15.00 off a first order of Formula I, II, or The Duo with code ONEPART. **This is not sponsored or an affiliate thing, just a super-amazing product with a super-cool founder that is giving us this special deal because I’m an obsessed fan.**
For real, get some!
$15.00 off your first order of Formula I, II, or Duo with code ONEPART.
Things That Freaked My Week
A bunch of things I want to eat, have watched/read, and am currently loving…
• POOG! I'm soooo late to this podcast and soooo glad I’m finally here. It’s smart, funny, and feels like the hosts are inside my brain. I love it so much, and I’m pretty sure you will, too.
• With delta, we’re back inside for the most part. And since I won’t let my six-year-old watch Real Housewives/the other sh*t TV I watch and you can only go to the park so many times, we needed some more games and art supplies (that are small enough to fit into our already packed car). Two things we’ve been loving are Uno Flip (basically Uno with a tiny twist) and this bucket of crafts I found at Michael’s (super affordable for all you get, and we’ve made soooo many things).
• I’m a huge fan of Christi Johnson’s work. I got some of her talisman patches a few years ago, and I love them so much that I’m too nervous to actually “patch” them on something (also, I don’t really know how to sew). Today I got a new newsletter from Christi and saw she has a new course and a newish book, Mystical Stitches. I went for the book right away! I’ve been looking for a new creative outlet, and I’m excited to give this a try. Even if it doesn’t end up being my thing, I’m so excited to read about Christi’s creative process and how she makes her magical art.
• The LulaRoe documentary, LulaRich, is a wild watch. I have so many things to say about it, but this newsletter has gotten really long, so will save it for another day. Here’s the trailer if you haven’t checked it out yet. It’s a great watch on so many levels!
Review Life
I know you aren’t supposed to read your book reviews…but I accidentally saw this one and wow. It actually made me laugh and didn’t send me into a sad-I-got a-bad-review spiral…maybe because I’m super secure about how much I care about equal healthcare for all. Reviews on Amazon really do matter when it comes to people discovering book (especially good reviews)! So if you loved Know Your Endo or it helped someone you know, please leave a review! You can do it here (and you can still leave one on Amazon, even if you bought it someplace else). Thank you so much!
And if you haven’t bought Know Your Endo and are interested, you can learn more about it here!