While the ingredients used in these amazing coconutty delights are not actually grown here on the property, they are 100% whole food ingredients. And – they are lovingly created and taste-tested right here so that still counts right?
I’ve included them here because – well who doesn’t love Bounty Bars? I love the dark chocolate ones and even Mr P is partial to a Bounty Bar every now and then.
These are the healthy version of Bounty Bars and I make these every now and then as a treat for my Reiki clients for that little bit of healing goodness after a session. It ensures they leave with that warm fuzzy feeling inside that comes from mixing coconut and chocolate with love and some gentle Reiki energies.
The wonderful things about these goodies are you can make them as large or as small, and as naughtily sinful or as nice and healthy as you like. Simply substitute and experiment with your personal preferences as I have. Enjoy.
Ingredients:
Filling
1 cup coconut milk (250ml – I use Light Coconut milk)
1/4 cup melted coconut oil (60ml – though you may want to experiment with less or more)
3 cups desiccated coconut
1 tablespoon vanilla bean powder (or a few drops of vanilla essence)
3 tablespoons raw honey (or your favourite organic honey)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Coating
1/4 cup raw cacao powder
1/8 cup raw honey
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
Instructions:
In a medium bowl, whisk coconut milk and coconut oil until they are well combined. Then add vanilla, honey and sea salt and mix well. Slowly add in desiccated coconut and mix until there are no lumps.
Line a baking dish or tray and pour in the mixture, then place it in the freezer for 2 hours to set.
Take it out of the freezer and cut into 1 cm x 3 cm bars, and then freeze for an additional 20 mins.
Meanwhile, to make the chocolate coating, mix cacao powder, coconut oil and honey together in a small bowl. Make sure the mixture is smooth and well combined.
Remove the coconut bars from the freezer and dip each bar completely into the chocolate coating, and then place them on a lined baking tray. Freeze for an additional 30 mins. Transfer to the fridge in an airtight container for storage.
I always thought I was a fairly patient person, but I’ve had to become more so these last few months. Initially, I had to be patient because he was only 11 weeks and I had to wait until 12 weeks for his next booster. Then I had to wait until he was 16 weeks to get his final booster and then another 2 weeks before I was able to take him out to the dog park and the beach and generally be like all the other pupsters out there. Finally, after he was kitted out with every vaccination and worming and tick tablet under the sun he sustained a nighttime assault from an unknown beastie which caused him a certain amount of pain and suffering. We had to wait for the swelling to go down. When it didn’t we had to wait for the medication to work. Then we had to wait a long night until he could have surgery … before 10 days of cone head! More waiting. More patience required. Of course, I’m sure it was a lot worse for Angus!
He had to put up with numerous thermometers stuck up his backside (violation), various injections (stabbings), a swollen, cut and shaven face (assault from all quarters). through all of this my poor boy wags his tail, but looks at me with the saddest black eyes – it makes water leak from my own eyes.
The surgery, the stitches, the cone – they’ve all left their mark – but Halleluja – the day arrives when it can all come off!
We are none the wiser regarding what caused his swollen face. All we know was something either bit/stung him or something from his daytime foraging got lodged in his chops and cheeks – something caused an infection so bad that even the first wave of antibiotics and antihistamine did not help. No foreign body was found and the x-rays showed his teeth were perfectly fine (though he was in lots of pain from teething).
It’s at times like these I wonder if my heart can stand the pain that loving a pet can bring. But as my mum used to say, ‘think of all the joy and love they bring you and the joy and love they receive from you in return.’
Now his cone is off and he’s back to riding the lawnmower and watching the Parrots and Lorikeets intently (no doubt wishing he could just eat them). He still looks at me with his serious face and big black eyes, but I think he understands now that we would do absolutely anything for him – and I guess that’s how the bond of trust develops and the love – well that just grows with every passing day.
To alleviate the boredom of being a big cone head I introduced Angus to some scent games. I’ve noticed whenever he is out and about he is a ‘sniffing’ kind of guy so I thought I could use this natural aptitude to bring a bit of fun to his convalescence.
Even with a high energy pup, it isn’t all about walking to oblivion. Too much exercise can actually have the opposite effect you’re after, over-stimulating a sensitive pup. It’s as important, if not more important to exercise your pupster’s brain.
Sniffing is a great enrichment activity with the added bonus of bringing calm to a stressed out dog. So make sure you always allow time for some serious sniffing because this is how he gathers the low-down on everything that’s happening around him.
I’d read a fair bit about introducing scent games to your dog – there’s a whole world on the internet about this (and qualifications too, I found out).
One of our training games in the morning is ‘sniff the hand’ – I present him with two closed fists – one has a treat in it. I make him sniff each one and then he has to tell me which hand the treat is in. He is adorable at this game. He used to use his big heavy paw to pick the right hand, now he uses his nose to really sniff that treat out. So he already had a good grasp of the basics. We have variations on this with ‘find the food/treats’. He has to ‘stay’ while I hide some food and he has to find it. Again, he is excellent at this as he is very food orientated.
While he was recovering from his surgery I bought a bag of catnip from the pet store and picked some mint and rosemary from the garden. I also a got a bit creative (I’m not very handy with a needle and thread but Angus is not judgemental) and made some felt pockets for the herbs.
I introduced to him to catnip first and then the rosemary followed by the mint. He seemed to love the toy with the mint smell and easily located it. We mixed things up a bit so I could see if he was really using his nose or his memory to bring me the various scented pockets.
It’s early days but we might make a sniffer dog out of him yet. At least he forgot about the cone of shame for a while.
Angus saw out the New Year through a haze of drugs and a little less rock and roll. It must have been about 10.30 at night when out of the darkness came a frantic yelping. We ran through to his crate and comforted him while frantically looking around for the beastie, spider or (God forbid) snake that inflicted the bite or sting. Nothing. Had he eaten it? What the hell was it? He was still whimpering as though he’d had a bad dream but apart from that, there didn’t appear to be any signs of injury.
The next morning the whole side of his face had swollen dramatically. Whatever had caused him to yelp had attacked viciously but he still seemed to be his normal self so I didn’t worry myself unduly. Whatever it was he’d got his own back by eating it so hopefully, the swelling would go down in a day or two. That afternoon I took him to our usual pet store to buy food. The girls in there always make a fuss of him but there were treats aplenty when they saw his swollen wee face. One of the girls noticed a little orange fleck sticking out on his chop so she gently pulled it out. It was hard to say what it was but it looked like a tiny quill. She then pulled at a couple of other suspicious looking protrusions but they could have been hairs for all we knew. There was nothing obvious. He didn’t seem too perturbed and just wagged his tail in the hope for more treats.
Day two, however, was a different story. Mornings are normally noisy affairs with by me hiding under my covers until he finds me (Angus that is). It normally results in lots of flailing paws, play barking and general high energy shenanigans. This particular morning, he padded into the bedroom and rested his head gently on my bed and looked up at me with those big black sad eyes. He was in pain and making whimpering crying sounds. Even though the swelling from the lower half of his cheek had gone down the swelling under his eye had grown even larger.
The Vet was no help really. She shaved his cheek, stuck a needle in the lump to draw some blood and stuck a thermometer up his backside. Poor pup. He somehow managed to wag his tail through it all and just be a general amazing little guy. I felt the tears prick my eyes when I saw blood run down his cheek. Each time I visited the vet it was like taking my baby for a vaccination – you know that feeling when you’re the one holding them in position as someone else jags them with a big needle? We came away from the Vet a few hundred dollars poorer and stocked with antihistamines and antibiotics. The blood test had been inconclusive so she’d taken a biopsy to send away if the lump didn’t improve. We still had no idea what we were dealing with.
“Bring him back in immediately if his face starts to ooze,” was the final instruction.
Things didn’t really improve and to cap it all the lump had been itchy so Angus scratched the top of it to reveal a large weeping mess. Did this class as ooze? That night (on New Year’s Day) about midnight his breathing changed and he became hoarse and laboured … and that’s when I felt a lump on his neck. I went into panic mode again worried something else had bitten him and perhaps the swelling was closing his airway. Sitting in the Animal Hospital at Midnight on New Year’s Day was not part of the plan but poor Angus was struggling.
Again we were sent on our way a few hundred dollars poorer with instruction to take him to the Vet for surgery in the morning! The swelling was his glands kicking into overdrive to counteract the infection caused by whatever got him.
You have to understand during the whole sorry episode, I was stressing out about Angus as if he was my first born – I was well aware of that – I just couldn’t control the protective mother mode. On the other hand, Peter was being Mr calm, cool and collected and insisted Angus was fine (infuriatingly so). I was battling with knowing I was being overly protective yet wondering if I was actually right to be concerned and of course the continuous expense of the Vet was a stress building in my mind too. I suppose if we actually had a definitive answer as to what the problem was I would have been fine.
So the next day we trot off to the Vet again. Angus is still sad and whimpering so the Vet finally says, “I think it’s time we took a closer look. The swelling should have gone down by now”.
They sliced his cheek and flushed out his wound with saline. They examined his teeth and x-rayed the roots. And what did they find? Nothing! So they put two stitches in and left the wound open to help drainage in case there were foreign bodies trapped somewhere.
So now he has to wear the Cone of Shame and he looks at us like we are the cruellest humans that ever walked the earth. “You rescued me from the RSPCA for this? Thanks for nothing,” his black eyes seem to say.
I’m sorry little guy … I wish I could take the pain and the stitches and even the cone for you … but a few weeks from now I’m sure you’ll have forgotten all about it and you’ll be back to bounding all over me in excited fashion in the mornings.
Roll on the 12th January when we can get rid of the stitches and the cone – all in a oner! Here’s hoping!
The Black Prince – just one of many Cicadas Angus loves to eat
I can’t quite remember when the hellish noise started. Perhaps early December? It began innocently enough – the sound of summer – but then it rose to levels that were just, well, downright rude. If you’ve been in Sydney or the Central Coast you’ll know I’m referring to the Cicada.
To be quite blunt – I’m so over the noisy f*@^&rs – I mean do you really have to start that racket at 5.00am and then build in crescendo as the day gets hotter and hotter and more and more oppressive? Apparently yes – that’s their modus operandi.
Temperature appears to be an important factor in the racket – I mean the cicada call. I have read that the noise ceases if the temperature falls below 15 degrees — unfortunately that isn’t going to happen in an Australian summer – day or night.
Apparently only the males call and it is primarily to attract a mate. Thank goodness the other half of the population don’t join in.
There are many species of Cicadas – probably around 700 across Australia. Here on the Central Coast there are about 35 different species. Each one has its own distinctive call which is produced by vibrating a pair of ribbed membranes at the base of the abdomen.
I guess they are quite cool to look at with their big bug eyes in reds, blacks and greens and oranges. Their wings are actually a work of art – Art Deco in style and so elegant like dragonfly wings. It’s just a pity they are so unsociably noisy.
If you have never heard a wave of Cicadas try to imagine white noise emanating from the trees and the air all around you – like static from the radio or TV but amplified to the point it makes your eardrums twinge – and make it last all day! To add insult to injury the little blighters excrete the sap they drink from trees and you think – ah blessed relief it’s raining. No just a cicada pee shower!
The racket makes it impossible to sit outside to enjoy the sunsets. Your ears are bleeding by the time you pop the cork and offer up a couple of glasses. Conversation is out the window unless you’re comfortable saying ‘what’s that?’ about ten times a minute.
The racket started at a point when we were trying to introduce the back Deck to Angus as a possible hang out place for him during the summer days (under shade and adjoining the back office and bedrooms). However, given pups have such sensitive ears – and Angus’s being larger and more sensitive than most – it was never going to work. He was pained by the whole experience so we gave up on that ‘socialisation’ experiment. We’re still waiting weeks later for the nightmare to end.
We began to wonder if we had made a huge mistake in buying in this area surrounded by trees, but a neighbour has reliably informed me that the last time it was this bad was 10 years ago. That ties in with reports that this year was a bumper season for Cicadas – so I’ll be monitoring the situation closely next year. I’ll get back to you on that one.
With New Year fast approaching we thought it high time we got all our ducks in a row and made things official. We’ve migrated our site from the family name – Pindsle.com – to an easier to remember (and easier to say, for some) ‘ Lorielane.com.
If you are following us here – simply click the Lorielane.com link and re-follow us at the new address by clicking on the RSS or Follow us on Facebook to keep updated with our latest adventures.
While the ingredients used in these amazing coconutty delights are not actually grown here on the property, they are 100% whole food ingredients. And – they are lovingly created and taste-tested right here so that still counts right?
Instructions:
Life with Angus has taught me patience.
