7
Feb

Chocolate-raspberry-orange soufflé

SPECIAL RECIPE!

Chocolate Souffle 1

Chocolate-raspberry-orange soufflé from Dr. Masley’s book THE 30-DAY HEART TUNE UP.  CLICK HERE: Masley Chocolate Raspberry Souffle

6
Feb

Consider the Chocolate

Last night, I returned home after a long evening’s work on my new novel. My primary thought, as I trudged home in the snow, was, boy I deserve some chocolate. I know that’s the wrong attitude, but there it was.

A few days ago, I had tried to mindfully eat a piece of chocolate after watching Dr. Albers’ video on the topic, but I learned an important lesson: you cannot mindfully do anything when you are listening for your children’s footsteps. At least until I get better at this, I must find a time when I won’t be disturbed, like late at night, when everyone’s asleep.

Late last night was the perfect time. I selected a square of dark chocolate with hazelnuts. I let it sit in my hand. It was heavy, more than an ounce, surely, but who’s counting? I noticed the little eagle logo imprinted on the square, and if I squinted, I could even make out some tiny print above the Ghirardelli: San Francisco, Founded in 1852. I’d no idea the company was around that long, so you see, mindful eating can be educational, too!

At that point, I was really having trouble not just popping it into my mouth. The chocolate was very bumpy, just completely loaded with nuts. I took a sniff, and noticed something. Whatever those pleasure receptacles are in my brain that go on full, light-up pinball machine when I eat chocolate actually started spazzing out, just from smelling it.

And then, I ate, forcing myself to take several bites instead of one. Did I enjoy the chocolate more by eating it this way? Yes, fine, I’ll admit it, skeptic that I was, I did enjoy it more. The moments spent anticipating it only heightened the pleasure of eating it. Eating it slowly, not too surprisingly, prolonged that ecstatic experience.

I believe Dr. Albers may be on to something here…

6
Feb

Chocolate has been around forever!

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I love chocolate! With that being said, I decided to do some digging into the history books and research when the first recordings of chocolate being consumed were. If we pull ourselves through a fold in time we will be transported all the way back to the Aztecs. Did you know they made a chocolate drink that was called Xocoatll? I didn’t either! They used the beans from the cocoa tree, refined them, and made them into a drink. I guess you can say it was their version of hot chocolate, except it was served chilled. Here is what you need to make this delightfully spicy drink!

  • 1.5 cups of water
  • 1 green chile pepper sliced
  • 4 cups of water
  • 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

Ancient Directions:
Bring 1 1/2 cup water to a boil in a pot; add the chili pepper, seeds included, to the boiling water and cook at a boil for 5 to 10 minutes. Strain the chili pepper and seeds from the water; return the water to the pot. Add 4 cups water to the chili pepper-infused water, reduce heat to medium-low, and bring to a slow boil. Stir the cocoa powder and vanilla extract into the boiling water; cook and stir until the powder dissolves completely, 5 to 10 minutes. This recipe is compliments of allrecipes.com! I think it is important to have a little chocolate everyday. When I do, I really don’t crave it in huge amounts. I know that when I have my little chocolate fix, I feel satisfied. I look forward to it everyday!

I made this and I have to say it was an interesting combination of ingredients. The chile pepper made the cocoa flavor stand out. I really wasn’t sure if the chile pepper would be overpowering. It surprisingly wasn’t! I am going to continue to research and dig up more information on chocolate and it’s place in our diet! The picture is what my drink looked like. I added a red pepper in the picture because it gives it a pop of color! Make this and let me know your thoughts on the ancient recipe! Let’s experiment together!!!

5
Feb

Chocolate, Chocolate, Oh MY!!!

 

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I received a huge box of chocolate in the mail! I knew it was coming. The anticipation was building over the last 2 weeks. I was told a box of chocolate was coming my way! At last, it had arrived! I ran down to the post office and picked it up because the address was incorrect! I was able to stop this large package of goodies from going back to the sender! I love chocolate! I will do anything for chocolate!( well, just about anyway) I loaded it in my car and decided I would look in the box when I got it back home. I was wondering what was in this huge box! My kids are always trying to guess what is in the wrapped boxes under the tree at Christmas. I was imagining what goodies could be in this box. Yes, I shook it gently, I couldn’t resist! I arrived home, ran into the house and used my car key to get through the tape. You would think I was desperate to get this box open! Inside my long awaited chocolate box were 5 varieties! There were some of my absolute favorite kinds! I LOVE dark chocolate especially when it is mixed with sea salt, caramel, pomegranate, and acai! As I look at this box, I realize I am supposed to only eat 1 per day! This is going to require lots of restraint! My logic tells me that since I am behind on days due to the mix up in the mail, I could eat more than 1 today, so….I played catch up and ate 3! That probably wasn’t very mindful of me but I was very aware of each delicious dark chocolate square that entered my mouth. It started with the reading of the label. Dark chocolate sea salt caramel! I wonder if that is as good as the caramel squares I ate from the grocery store last week?  The Ghiradelli square appeared super smooth on the outside. Where was the salt? I am used to seeing the salt on the outside of the chocolate. I wonder if there is going to be course salt on the inside of this very thin piece of chocolate?  As I bit into it, the caramel oozed out and I detected the slightly course salt. It was the most delicious combination of ingredients! The flavor was an explosion in my mouth! This is going to be a great month for chocolate! I consider February to be the sweetest month of the year! I can’t wait to eat more tomorrow!

5
Feb

Slowing Down

This morning, I woke to a large amount of snow covered by a thin, crunchy layer of ice. The plans I had for all the things I was going to get done today were immediately cancelled. The kids were granted yet another snow day. Even the hubs got the morning off work.

Sometimes other forces convene to slow us down from our daily routines. And sometimes, this is a very good thing. I’m sitting in my office now with my morning coffee (mocha java, of course). I work in a bedroom closet (NOT the closet where the chocolate is hidden). It’s not as bad as it sounds; I have a large window in here, which, today, looks out over the ice-coated branches of a Japanese maple, and beyond that, our street. There’s not a sound, except the faint scraping of snow shovels and the rhythmic breathing of my black lab asleep near my feet.

And so, what does this have to do with chocolate? Well, I believe the idea of slowing down, of appreciating, can be beneficial in so many areas of life, not just eating. I BELIEVE this, I don’t often PRACTICE it. But I’d like to change that. Tomorrow, I shall attempt, via the instructions on Dr. Albers’ video, to mindfully eat a piece of chocolate. I’m pretty sure I could mindfully eat a Brussels sprout, but chocolate? Tune in tomorrow, and we shall see…

4
Feb

My Own Personal Chocolate Craving Meter

Have you downloaded Dr. Albers’ Chocolate Craving Meter yet? I just did, and I can tell you it’s a pretty thing. Graphically, it’s quite well done. (Do you feel a “but” coming on?) BUT, these indicators don’t work for me at all.

Let’s start with the “Very Low” indicator. It reads: “I don’t really want it [chocolate]. It wouldn’t taste good right now.” I have NEVER felt this way in my entire life! Same with the “Low” indicator: “I could take chocolate or leave it and be okay either way.” Nope. I can’t even think of a chocolate bad enough that would cause me to think this.

We move on to a “Moderate” craving: “A little chocolate sounds good! It would hit the spot.” Then, a “High” craving: “I really want chocolate! I can’t stop thinking about it.” And, lastly, “Very High”: “I must have it! Chocolate is calling my name!”

Now, please do what you want with your own craving meters, but I’m going to do a little editing to mine. First, I’ll completely cut off the “Very Low” and “Low” categories because they’re just wasting space. Now, I’ll need a little re-writing for the other three.

Moderate: “Eating this chocolate will keep me sane for at least, oh, a couple hours.”

High: “I hear you talking to me, but instead of seeing your face, I’m seeing a molten lava cake. Wait, what? Is that you, Auntie Em?”

Very High: “Step away from my chocolate, or you’re toast.”

Much better!

 

3
Feb

Who You Calling Emotional?

So, there I was, sitting around dreaming of my chocolate stash, deciding which I would open first. It wasn’t enough to have delicious dark chocolate; I wanted it chock full of something. I was thinking I’d choose a bar with nuts. And then…just as we were getting ready to leave for a family fun afternoon at a nature center, my daughter had a melt-down, which resulted in her being sent to her room, and my husband and her brother going on the trip without us.

Dear reader, I was a blur as I ran to the coat closet to retrieve my chocolate (shhh, nobody knows it’s in there). I grabbed blindly for something, anything, clutching a shiny wrapper in my little paws, tearing open a corner with my teeth like a possessed weasel. Wait, I’m supposed to eat one ounce! I quickly glance at the nutritional content. Screw it! I don’t have time for MATH!

I broke off a chunk and popped it into my mouth, chewed and swallowed, barely registering the taste, until moments later, after I’d re-stashed the bag, when I realized, wow, that was really good, I mean, awesomely good. What was that exactly? I go back to the closet: Ghirardelli Intense Dark Toffee Interlude. I wish I’d, you know, savored that, instead of injecting it directly into my bloodstream.

Will this happen again? Most likely. Is there a moral here? I don’t know. I’ll leave that to the psychologists, but if you’re a type who likes labels, I guess you can slap a big one on my forehead that says, “Emotional Eater.” Let me re-introduce myself. Hi, my name is Marcy, and I’m an Emotional Eater.

2
Feb

Pick Your Poison

The hubs and I don’t get out much. With two young kids and nary a grandparent in sight, our fine dining experiences are few and far between. Because of this, when we do go out, I’ll eat whatever I damn well please. That said, I’ll also eat more slowly, more mindfully, more conscious of the significant other across the table and of the delicious food. Dinners at home are a hurried affair, trying to get enough nutrients into the kids before they lose interest with the whole sitting still/not telling potty jokes at the table kind of thing.

Yet, in the interest of taking our time and making the most of our dinner out, my husband and I also tend to eat more than we would at home. We were at a nice Asian restaurant this weekend. We had sushi for an appetizer. We had wine. We worked on our main courses, swapping plates, then swapping back. And, need I say, we had dessert.

The waiter showed us the evening’s three offerings: some kind of berry-infused cheesecake, a second thing I can’t even remember, and *insert angel trumpeters here* The Hunan Tower, which was a layer of dark chocolate cake covered with a chocolate ganache, on top of a deep layer of fluffy chocolate mousse, on top of a thin layer of plain old cheesecake (two out of three ain’t bad).

We decided to “share” it. I quickly cut off the offending cheesecake layer and pushed it toward hubs. I then got to work on the two chocolate layers. Here’s a little fact you might not know. Come closer, I’ll whisper it…..If you have been with your significant other for more than ten years, it is perfectly okay to stab his hand with your fork if he tries to steal your cake!

I wasn’t even all that hungry for dessert, but I gave in to my cravings and polished off The Hunan Tower. However, since I don’t eat out much, I didn’t feel guilty. I felt full, yes, but not guilty. Tell me, what’s your experience with dessert when dining out?

 

 

 

1
Feb

Hi! I’m Marcy

MARCY

Hello chocolate lovers! So glad to kick off this sweetest of months with you. I just returned from a meeting with Dr. Albers where I was presented with a very large bag of chocolatey goodness. We’re talking serious chocolate, ranging from chocolate bars to chocolate covered berries to chocolate tea! I have laid out all my loot on the dining room table. My eyes zero in immediately on two items: a bar of Ghirardelli Hazelnut Heaven, and a bag of Dove Roasted Almonds. I feel my pulse rate rising and detect a bit of salivation going on. I want it. I want it bad, baby.

But wait, I already had my chocolate today. Dr. Albers put me through an experiment, with five different types of chocolate, to see if I could order them from least, to highest, percentage of cacao. I’ll have you know, I aced this test. And so I do believe Dr. Albers has met her match…and I do believe I’ve met mine. What kind of monster gives a chocolate lover an entire bag of the stuff and asks her to eat only an ounce a day?  Ahhh, we shall see. All in a month’s time, we shall test Dr. Albers’ experiments. And we shall see how a woman who steals the “good stuff” out of her childrens’ Halloween pumpkins while the precious angels sleep, will survive temptation of momentous proportions.

Each day in February, I shall eat 1 oz. (or more;) of chocolate and tell you all about it. I suggest you gather your own chocolate so you can participate, rather than just watch voyeuristically…unless that’s your thing. And now, chocolate be gone! Back in the bag with you! Close the bag, hide the bag, where my kids can’t find it and where it will not be constantly in my sight. I’m weak, dear reader, so weak…

 

1
Feb

Track Your Chocolate Cravings

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