You've done it again, vegans.

I feel like it's a universal truth that Nutella is amazing, no? If you don't agree with that statement, there may be something wrong with you. Anytime I've had Nutella in the house, it starts off civilized enough, eat it on my toast, heat it up and drizzle it on
ice cream"fruit", the way a normal adult should eat it. That lasts about two days and then the much more popular version takes over, aka spoon meet Nutella jar. The thing with Nutella is, it's delicious for a reason. One serving can hold up to 200 calories, 12 grams of fat and 22 grams of sugar. It's candy, as much as we like to deny it, it's candy. But damn is it ever heavenly. But, because I have proven time and again I cannot have it in my house without consuming it at the rate of a fat kid who missed a meal or two, I don't buy it. Also, the more I learn about how much sugar we're consuming, as well as how many processed chemicals are in our day to day convenient foods, it's just not something I want in my house.

Well, those vegans man, they're at it again. I introduce to you, vegan Nutella. Now, I'm not a vegan myself, you would've heard about it by now, but they do have some clever little nacks when it comes to making sinful food, not quite so sinful. Here is the lineup:

Vegan Nutella: (Disclaimer: I didn't make the whole amount this time, because I wanted to make sure I liked it first. I probably made 1/3 of this amount, and it still yielded at least 3 servings)

• 2 heaping tablespoons of coconut oil


• 2-3 heaping tablespoons of dark cocoa powder


• ½ cup of hazelnut butter


• organic maple syrup to taste (or agave, honey, coconut sugar.. just not white sugar if you can avoid it)

I made mine in a Pyrex microwave bowl, and you just heat it all up and mix until they're blended. Put it in a storage container and either leave on the counter or refrigerate until you want to consume it. If you're leaving it on your counter, glass containers would be better than plastic.

Mind. Blown. This stuff is NUMMY.

Here's the deal with the vegan version: the cocoa powder is loaded with anti-oxidants, and while the coconut oil & hazelnut butter will still obviously have calories attached to it, they're calories coming from the good fats that our body needs, as well as some protein thrown in there. You can eat this stuff and for the most part, feel good about what you're putting into your body. Don't eat the whole container now, healthy does not equal negative calories in this case.
I had it as an after dinner snack with apples & greek yogurt and it was so delicious and filling, and best of all, the guilt you usually feel after eating a whole wack of Nutella is replaced with a feeling of smugness that you can eat chocolate while still gaining the benefits. *Not pictured: when I came back at that container with a spoon & ate half of it before I even knew what I was doing. Old habits die hard so it seems.