Operation Coconut Oil

I have learned in my reading and research that extra virgin, organic coconut oil is really fantabulous stuff! It is high in saturated fat and lauric acid, which speed up your metabolism, give you energy, raise your HDL, or "good" cholesterol, and better yet...help you lose weight!!

One of the forums that I am a member of actually has a recipe for a "coconut bark," or simple candy using the coconut oil. People eating this bark report that they have lots of energy, feel full for hours, and drop weight much faster. So hell, sign me up!!

Well the first task is to find coconut oil. Since coconut oil still has a bad stigma (and wrongly so!), it is difficult to find in regular stores. After scouring the city I live in, I finally found a great grocery store called Nugget that has it in stock! (to the tune of $13.99 for 15 ounces...eeks!)
So after rounding up my necessary supplies, I set for home to blend this wonderful concoction.

Let me me honest here...the first attempt was a dismal failure. Imagine that you added some cocoa powder and sweetener to some Crisco and decided to eat that. Um....yeah.

I think the main issue though, was that I tried to use sugar free caramel DaVinci's syrup as the sweetener for this recipe and that did NOT work. The result was very bitter. Both in taste and disappointment, i might add.

The second batch was much, much better. Instead of the syrup, I used two Splenda envelopes as my sweetener. I also added a couple of drops of pure vanilla extract. The result was actually a decent flavor! However the texture still leaves something to be desired.

Tomorrow I am going to buy some natural peanut butter and add some to the mix. I'm hoping to cut the oilyness a little as well as add more bulk and flavor.

This should be interesting! Now we'll see if this actually works. Since I gave custody of my scale to my dh, I will have to wait until the end of the month before actually seeing any results on the scale.