I decided back in June that I would bring a whole slew of them to the Healthy Living Summit for the TNT bake sale. Days before leaving for Boston, I made 36 macaroons (1/2 chocolate, 1/2 original), designed the cutest little labels for them, and tied them all up with polka dotted bows.

I loved them.

True to form, I forgot to take a picture.

I’m very excited to tell you that today, Aimee, who was the winner of my Coconut Almond Macaroons, has featured them on her bloggie. This makes me happy because she has pictures!

So, go check them out on Aimee’s blog!

In honor of Aimee’s post, and because I love all of you so much, I’m giving away a dozen macaroons (6 chocolate and 6 original, all raw & vegan) to the first 4 people who comment this post.  There are no rules, just comment.

No spammers (I’ll catch you, trust me)!

If you’re one of the first 4 to post a comment, please also click on my “contact” tab and send me your name and mailing address. I’ll get the goods to you this week!

Update: Congratulations to Keri, Paige, Monica and Tonja!  Their quick clicking earned them a dozen yummy macaroons!  To the winners: please click on the “contact” tab and send me your address if you haven’t already done so!

* Have you joined my Facebook Group yet?

* See how my training is going over here!

* Wonder what I’m eating?

* Everyone loves a giveaway!

I just wanted you to know that I’m having trouble picking a topic.  The list that you see above?  Yeah…so all of those orange folders contain pictures of things that I need to tell you about.  This is sort of my “to do” list of blogs.  Clearly, I’m not really making a very good dent in the “to do” list.  That’s kind of my M.O.

However, I am going to mark one thing off of my list today.  It’s not necessarily the oldest thing on the list, but it’s the one that I want to talk the most about.  So, that’s what I’ll do.  Because I am one of those people who do the fun things first, and save the not-so-fun things for later.  Not that all of the stuff I want to tell you about isn’t fun, but this is probably the most fun.

Well.  I think so.

And it’s my blog.

And you’ll be so happy that it is.  And that I made this decision.

See, here’s the thing.  I bought an Excalibur Food Dehydrator.

The reason why I bought the Excalibur Food Dehydrator?  Well, because I wanted to make macaroons.  It was power of suggestion, really.  I’ve seen too many of those dehydrator macaroons floating around the Blogiverse lately, and I needed to make some of my own.  I’m so easy.  I’m proof that viral marketing really does work.

That was ok with me.  I got a great deal on a ‘blemished’ Excalibur (although I cannot find a blemish on the thing), and I happily gave up most of my counter space for this appliance.

Everything was all find and good until I realized one thing.  I did not have a freaking recipe for the macaroons.  I searched high and low, near and far.  None of the recipes I came across were what I really wanted, and it seems that the Queen of Macaroons was not giving up her recipe!  The world is just not fair.

In the meantime, Calib, as he is now known, was just begging me to use him.  I’m not kidding.

So, I made up my own recipe.  And, since I refuse to have secrets between us, I am giving it to you.  I learned how to share.  Me and sharing…we go way back.  Don’t be thwarted by the “dehydrator” thing.  You can make these in a regular old oven, you just have to set it as low as possible, and you can even leave the door open.  It’ll still work.  I promise.  But start saving your money for a Excalibur.  It’s worth it.  I promise.

Trust me, you want to make these.

This is just before they were dehydrated.  Aren’t they cute?  You don’t have to make them this round though–I scooped them out with a tablespoon and plopped them onto the trays, but you can just scoop them out with a spoon and plop them on if you’d like.  My Gazelle says they look like balls of rice.

I say they look like balls of heaven.

You can make them with raw cocoa

Or without

I couldn’t make up my mind.  So I made both.

Ok, here we go!

Almond Coconut Macaroons (So Good You Might Cry)

Buy It:

2 Cups Raw Almonds, ground (flour-style)
2 Cups Raw Ground Coconut
2 Medjool Dates, spun in food processor
¼ Cup Agave Nectar
½ Cup Honey
1-2 Tablespoons Almond Extract
¼ Cup Raw Cocoa Powder (optional)

Do It:

Combine all ingredients.  You’ll know it’s perfect when everything sticks together easily.  Add more coconut if things look too gooey, and add more honey/agave if it’s not sticking together well.  Try not to eat all of the batter.

Form batter into round balls (or any other shape you’d like), and place on food dehydrator trays(1).  Dehydrate at 105 degrees for 6-8 hours(2).

(1) If you don’t have a dehydrator, you can also make these in your oven.  Set your oven on the lowest temperature possible, and you can even leave the door open.  Allow to stay in oven for 2-4 hours, or until macaroons are firm to the touch.

(2) I dehydrated mine for 7 hours.

Here’s a printable version of my almond-coconut-macaroons!

Please make them and tell me how much you love them.  It will make me smile.

And now, I can take “macaroons” off of the to do list.  And wasn’t that fun?

If anyone is interested in purchasing one chewy dozen of my fabulous macaroons (for cheap), here is my store!