Sugar: that sweet, sweet nectar from the Gods…. It (and anything sweet for that matter) is my big-time weakness. But as most of you already know, sugar is also THE DEVIL!

In a nut shell, sugar causes serious cravings and essentially, makes us fat. Too much can also cause low energy levels and muscle fatigue—two things you definitely don’t need when you’re working out constantly and trying to build muscle!

It’s also a well-known fact that when you remove sugar from your diet, your taste buds get retrained and suddenly not-so-sweet foods taste like candy! I always feel this way about grapefruit during my vegan competition prep.

As much as it pains me to do so, I really do try to keep my sugar intake to a minimum (even in the off-season) so today, I thought I’d share a non-sweet yet actually sweet treat with you.

I wanted to combine my Vancouver pal Krystle’s “peanut butter cup” recipe from Vegucated in Vancouver with the “almond butter cup” recipe in Diane Sanfilippo’s 21 Day Sugar Detox.

Who doesn’t love peanut butter cups?! And my custom creation turned out even BETTER than expected. I highly recommend whipping up a batch of these before hogging out on that tub of coconut ice cream or ginormous piece of chocolate cake. These are not only sugar free, they’re also super high in protein! So get ’em in ya, guilt free, baby!

Sugar (And Guilt) FREE Chocolate Almond Butter Cups

Almond Butter (Bottom) Ingredients:

1/2 cup natural almond butter
2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
1 scoop Jacked on the Beanstalk Protein Powder in Vanilla flavour
**Add a little bit of water if too thick**

Chocolate (Top) Ingredients:

1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
2 tablespoons unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup unsweetened cacao powder
Pinch of ground cinnamon
Pinch of sea salt

Method:

Combine all bottom ingredients together in a bowl. Spoon approximately 1 tablespoon of the mixture into parchment-lined muffin tins. Should make about a half dozen (or 12 if using mini muffin tins.) Place in freezer for 15 minutes.

Combine all chocolate top ingredients together in a bowl. Spoon approximately 1 tablespoon of the mixture on top of the almond butter. Place back in freezer for an additional 15 minutes or until hardened.

Tip: Keep cups in the freezer. This will prevent them from melting and losing their shape.

For more of my competition diet recipes, check out my eBook “Jacked on the Beanstalk: Plant Based Fuel for Vegan Athletes.“