An edible Eco Emi DIY
As you know, I like to do a follow-up DIY with the decorative packing items inside my monthly Eco Emi box (if you missed it, here's January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, my first September Eco Emi DIY, my second September Eco Emi DIY, my first for October and second for October, November and December of 2012). Today, I decided to mix things up (literally), and make something you can eat using one of the food samples in last month's box.
With Hayden's help, I quickly whipped up these truffle-like treats, perfect for your special someone this Valentine's Day (or to share with someone special, like I did with Hayden). All I needed was the sample pack of Linwood Milled Flaxseed with Cocoa and Berries, some nut butter, a drizzle of sweetener, and cocoa powder and/or finely ground freeze-dried berries for dusting.
The sample pack of cocoa berry flax contains about 2 Tbsp. (if you don't have this product, feel free to substitute a little less than 2 Tbsp. ground flax blended with a dash of cocoa powder and tiny bit of freeze-dried strawberries/blueberries ground into a powder). We put the cocoa berry flax in a small bowl, and added some raw almond butter to it.
Any nut butter should work. I used an individual packet of Artisana Organic Raw Almond Butter similar to the pecan butter packet from August's Eco Emi box. It's the perfect 2 Tbsp. serving-size. If you cut around the sides, you can peel it open to scrape out all of the product.
To sweeten it, we drizzled in just a hint of pure maple syrup, although you could also use the agave, coconut sugar, stevia or raw honey from past Eco Emi boxes, etc. If you selected an already sweetened nut butter in place of the raw almond butter (I'm really loving Jem nut butters at the moment, and Justin's Nut Butter packets seem to be available everywhere these days), don't worry about adding any more sweetener. Just stir it together until thoroughly combined.
Next, we divided the mixture into four sections and rolled them into little balls, which we covered in cocoa powder and freeze-dried berry powder (freeze-dried strawberries and blueberries that we blended into a fine powder), and chilled in the fridge until ready to eat.
Then, we just needed a way to display them, so we took advantage of the small box we received in our Eco Emi, as well as the decorative greenery, heart confetti and tissue paper. We started by removing the soft lining (we are definitely saving that for another project) and replacing it with a ring of greenery around the inside of the box.
We lined the center of the box with some unbleached parchment paper, which is where we sat the four finished truffle-like treats, and sprinkled some of the red heart confetti around the greenery for fun (Hayden staked her claim on the rest of the hearts).
I also cut a square of parchment to fit the top of the lid and protect our precious poppers.
To decorate the outside of the box, we removed the stretchy elastic ribbon (Hayden is now using it as a headband), replacing it with a large tissue paper flower bow. The first step was to fold the tissue paper multiple times longways to create a nice size "ribbon" and position it under the box.
Pull the ends up around the box and secure with a small rubberband.
Cut the ends into heart shapes.
Fluff out the ends to look like a flower. Beautiful!
Oh, and I also have plans for that Madecasse Pink Pepper and Citrus Chocolate bar from last month's Eco Emi box. I might melt it down and dip some strawberries. Yum!
