Pomegranate, Roasted Peanut, Dark Chocolate Bark (vegan, gluten-free)

I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving full of delicious food, family, and friends this past weekend. The Holiday months always seem to fly right by. I always find myself in awe when the month of December arrives, not knowing where the time went.

There are two times out of the year where we decorate the entire house, Halloween and Christmas. Lucky for me, I have a festive husband who loves decorating the house as much as I do, especially after we had kids. The excitement in their eyes as they help us decorate inside and out brings joy to our eyes. Knowing how much traveling we’ll be doing this month, and in order to maximize the use of our decorations, we decided to get ahead of the game and fully decorate our house for Christmas before leaving for Thanksgiving. This means that come today, December 1st, I’m in full Christmas mode and my minds exploding with plans and ideas! Crafts and baking with the kids, planning our annual Christmas Party with friends, and preparing homemade treats to pass out to friends, neighbors, teachers, and anyone else who happens to stop by our house this month, including our local UPS guys who work ever-so-hard this month delivering packages on time to everyone’s doorstep.

To start off this festive month, I’m excited to share my new favorite holiday bark recipe! Pomegranate Pearls, Roasted Peanuts, and Dark Chocolate all come together to create this wonderful bark combination. It is by far my most favorite bark creations and is very addicting, especially since we have pomegranates galore growing in our front yard. The best part of this recipe is that it’s very easy to make. The pomegranate pearls always look breathtaking, making them the perfect treat to pass out this Holiday Season.

This bark came about because we had about 30 delicious large pomegranates growing in our front yard this season and some extra melted dark chocolate left over from making these fun googly eyes and frozen chocolate covered banana slices with my kids. Not wanting to waste any melted dark chocolate, I started searching around my kitchen for what else I could coat with dark chocolate, because of course, everything tastes better coated in dark chocolate =) My eyes came across some pomegranate seeds I had harvested earlier and I knew it was going to be a winner. After polishing off the result myself, I knew I had to re-create a proper version and make it into some Holiday Bark. I started experimenting with other flavors to add to the chocolate and pomegranate seeds and found my way over to some dry-roasted peanuts. To be quite honest, peanuts are typically not my nut of choice. However, with this combination, it has quickly made it’s way up on my list. The flavor of the peanuts compliments the pomegranate seeds and dark chocolate perfectly!

If you need a quick Holiday Treat to make this season this is the one! Pass it out to friends and family, make it for your Holiday party, package it up for your kids teachers, or simply leave some laying out in your kitchen. I guarantee it will be gone quickly and you’ll find yourself making another batch. This bark contains fresh pomegranate seeds and should therefore be stored in the fridge and will not last as long as typical chocolate barks made with dry ingredients. Although I’m pretty sure you will not have to worry about it spoiling, because it will be gone before you know it. Enjoy!