"healthier", Easier Chocolate Diet Snack

These are still a great snack if you are on a diet, because they are sweet and nutty and chocolatey BUT you can't eat more than a couple at a time because of the results (dates are a natural laxative). By adding a range of nuts instead of just almonds, using already roasted nuts and using the microwave to melt the chocolate I think I've made this healthy and easy.

Step 1: Ingredients

dates
roasted unsalted mixed nuts (no peanuts)
good dark cooking chocolate
rolling pin
tea towel
knife
spoon

Step 2: Nuts

I had planned to just fold the teatowel into 3 before hitting the nuts with the rolling pin, but the nuts flew out of the ends. So I folded the ends in before hitting it again.

Step 3: Cut and Fill

I cut the dates and filled them with the nuts, I didn't need the spoon and filled the dates by hand.

Step 4: Chocolate

I have recently read that melting chocolate in the microwave is better than over steam because there is no chance of water getting in. When I melted it I made sure the chocolate was broken into similar size bits, then melted it at half power for 1 minute; because you sometimes can't tell when it is melted I took it out and checked it. It wasn't melted so I put it back in for 10 sec intervals, testing it every time.

Step 5: Chocolate and More Nuts

dip the dates into chocolate and then into the nuts

Step 6: Finished

I took them to dinner and they were decorated beautifully by Jess.

Step 7: Finished More

They were delicious but didn't look quite chocolatey enough - and there was chocolate left over, so I redipped a couple.